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ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1862 



LINCOLN AND 
PROHIBITION 



BY 

CHARLES T. WHITE 

Political News Editor New York Tribune 
Taz Commiseioner of New York under Mayors Gaynor and Mitchel 



INTRODUCTION BY 

WILL H. HAYS 

Postmaater General of the United States 



WITH PORTRAITS AND DOCUMENTS 




THE ABINGDON PRESS 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 



.2 

,W6 



Copyright, 1921, by 
CHARLES T. WHITE 



OCT 26 i92l 



Printed in the United States of America 



^C!.A624'.-)95 



To 
BISHOP LUTHER B. WILSON. D.D.. LL.D, 

A Distinguished Representative of the Forces 

Triumphantly Battling for a Higher 

Standard of Thought and Life 



CONTENTS 

PAGB 

Preface 9 

Introduction 15 

D. H. Bates' Judgment on Genuineness of Merwin 

Documents 18 

CHAPTER 

I. Liquor Drinking in the Lincoln Period . . 21 
General Neal Dew's Testimony. 

II. Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks 24 

Sober, temperate, kindly people — Thomas 
Lincoln's prodigious strength — His fight 
with Abraham Enloe. 

III. Lincoln's Home Training 27 

Prayer and Bible reading in the home — ^Total 
abstinence from liquor — Charles G. Le- 
land's comment. 

IV. Lincoln's "First Temperance Lecture". . . 30 

He beats the champion weight-lifter — "If you 
wish^to remain healthy and strong," etc. 
V. Lincoln's Essay on Temperance at Seven- 
teen 32 

Hemdon, Lincoln's law partner, testifies. 
VI. Berry and Lincoln as "Grocery Keepers" 34 
Stephen A. Douglas refuted at Ottawa — 
Leonard Swett testifies — Berry leaves crush- 
ing debt for Lincoln to pay. 

VII. The Washingtonian Movement 37 

Lincoln the Springfield leader — Lincoln's let- 
ter to Pickett, "Recruit for this victory." 
VIII. Lincoln's Address to the Washingtonians . 40 
"When there shall be neither a slave nor a 
drunkard." 

IX. Father Mathew 56 

His visit to America in 1849 — Effect of 
his crusade. 



6 CONTENTS 

CHAJTEK PAQB 

X. Sons of Temperance 60 

Origin, scope, and spread — Lincoln's address 
to delegation in 1863. 

XL Lincoln and Pledge Signing 63 

His temperance addresses in 1846-47 — 
Affidavits by signers — The Lincoln pledge. 

XII. Lincoln's Indorsement of His Pastob's 

Radical Temperance Views 65 

He helps to print and circulate them. 

XIII. Lincoln and the Illinois Prohibition 

Campaign 66 

His sympathy for the cause. 

XIV. The Illinois Prohibition Law and Its 

Authorship 69 

Lincoln the framer of the prohibition law — 
Henry B. Rankin's comment — Paid counsel 
of the Maine Law Alliance — Shrewd provi- 
sions of the act. 

XV. Press Comments on the Dry Law 73 

Stephen T. Logan a temperance worker — 
Passage of the law in House and Senate 
— Prohibition parade in Chicago — Dry law 
beaten on referendum June 5, 1855, by 
fraud — An 1855 prophecy. 

XVI. Illinois Dry Law, February 12, 1855 79 

Lincoln's senatorship contest coincident 
with prohibition campaign — Lincoln in 1855 
walks six miles to make temperance speech. 
XVII. Cold Water Only at Springfield Notifi- 
cation 83 

Lincoln refused to have Uquors served. 

XVIII. The Prohibition Watch 85 

Lincoln writes inscription and presents it to 
Merwin in Chicago — Watch lost and re- 
covered. 



CONTENTS 7 

CHAPTER PAGB 

XIX. About Chaplain James B. Merwin and 

Lincoln 87 

Merwin summoned by Lincoln to do temper- 
ance work in the army — Lincoln writes 
Merwin a pass — ^His work indorsed by 
Lincoln — Generals Scott, Butler, and Dix. 
XX. Lincoln and Geneual Grant's Liquor 

Drinking 93 

Liquor men make most of Lincoln's jest 
to Grant's detractors — General Rawlins' 
reproof to General Grant — Grant's self- 
mastery — Grant's estimate of Rawlins. 

XXI. "Alcohol the Army Curse" 95 

General Baker on liquor drinking in the 
service — Lincohi and Stanton fight it. 
XXIL Temperance and Discipline in the Ranks. 99 
New York Evening Post notes Merwin's 
work in the army — Butler says, "Mission 
of Merwin will be of great benefit." 

XXIII. Lincoln Accepted Internal Revenue Act 

as War Measure 101 

Hoped for its repeal after war was over. 

XXIV. Lincoln's Last Utterance on Temperance . 103 

"The next great question" — Hoped to see 
his own prophecy fulfilled. 

XXV. Lincoln's Assassins a Drinking Set 104 

His killing part of a larger plot — Booth 
intoxicated when he killed Lincoln. 

XXVI. Lincoln's Secretiveness and Caution 106 

Testimony of Herndon, Davis, and Swett. 

XXVII. Crooked Elections for Fifty Years 109 

XXVIII. In Conclusion Ill 

Roosevelt and the Lincoln portrait — Gov- 
ernor Black's eloquent tribute. 



8 CONTENTS 

APPENDIX 

PAQB 

A — Chronology op Anti-Liquor Movement in 

America 113 

B — General McDougall's Indorsement of James B. 

Merwin 140 

C — The 1855 Prohibition Battle in Illinois History. 141 

D — Merwin's Statement to the Writer 145 

E — Banker A. J. Barer Confirms Merwin 150 

F — Merwin's Letter to F. D. Blakeslee 153 

G — Dr. Nathan Smith Davis, Pioneer Temperance 

Advocate 158 

H — Ex-Secretary Robert T. Lincoln's Letter 

About Merwin 159 

I — Lincoln and a Panama Canal 162 

J — Text of Maine Prohibition Law 165 

K — The Illinois 1855 Prohibition Law Framed by 

Abraham Lincoln 176 

Authorities Consulted 228 

Index 229 



ILLUSTRATIONS 
Abraham Lincoln in 1862 Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Lincoln in 1847 — His First Photograph 40 

Father Theobald Mathew, Temperance Reformer. 56 

James B. Merwin's Prohibition Watch 86 

James B. Merwin's Army Pass, Written by Lincoln . 88 
Facsimile Indorsements by Lincoln, Generals 
Scott and Butler, with Names of Petitioners 

ASKING to have JaMES B. MeRWIN DESIGNATED AS 

A Temperance Worker in the Union Army. Plates 

A andB 90 

General John A. Dix's Indorsement of Merwin 

AND His Work 92 

Chaplain James B. Merwin 103 

James B. Merwin's Pass for Himself and Driver . . . 148 



PREFACE 

And ivhen the victory shall be complete — ivhen 
there shall he neither a slave nor a drunkard on 
earth — how proud the title of that land which may 
truly claim to he the birthplace and the cradle 
of both those revolutions that shall have ended in 
that victory. — Lincoln to the Washingtonian So- 
ciety, Springfield, Illinois, February 22, 1842. 

The purpose of this book is to set forth in con- 
nected and logical form a brief but comprehensive 
record of Abraham Lincoln's efforts for the sup- 
pression of intemperance. 

Here for the first time is presented in perma- 
nent form documentary proof that Lincoln, in 
1855, as counsel for the Illinois State Maine Law 
Alliance, wrote a drastic prohibition State law, 
which was passed by the Legislature, and on its 
submission to a referendum in a general election 
five months later failed of acceptance by a vote of 
93,102 against the proposition to 79,010 in favor 
of it. 

The defeat of the prohibitory law was accom- 
plished by fraud, the safeguarding of elections at 
that time being ineffective. The liquor interests 
brought to pass bloodshed and riots, which in the 
city of Chicago were checked only by the declara- 
tion of martial law. 

9 



10 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

Mr. Lincoln was not a total-abstinence third- 
party political prohibitionist as the term is at 
present understood, but his directing genius as 
counsel in the 1855 State campaign was responsi- 
ble for one of the most brilliant political achieve- 
ments in the long battle for prohibition. 

There is no mistaking his moral or political 
direction. He was an ultimate prohibitionist, as 
he was an ultimate abolitionist. 

The anti-slavery extension movement and the 
Illinois senatorship contest in the winter of 1855, 
in which Mr. Lincoln was a leading figure and 
candidate, were co-related. They completely over- 
shadowed other things, so that while Lincoln and 
his friends fought valiantly for the suppression of 
intemperance, both before and after the defeat of 
the State prohibition law in June, 1855, the over- 
shadowing anti-slavery movement soon left the 
anti-rum battle little more than a memory. 

The record of the 1855 movement for State pro- 
hibition in Illinois includes documents, affidavits, 
and data by the late James B. Merwin, an associ- 
ate of Lincoln both in 1855 and during the Civil 
War. 

Merwin's data is used only so far as it will 
stand a rigid analytical test. He lost nearly all 
his Lincoln correspondence in the great Chicago 
fire in the early seventies. The documents saved 
amply substantiate Merwin's claim to fairly in- 
timate association with the President. 

Much of the Merwin matter — the portions not 



PKEFACE 11 

essential to a concise record — is carried in the 
Appendix. The writer's association with Mr. Mer- 
win was during the last year of his life. He was 
a cultured Christian gentleman, but in his last 
years [he died at 87] he was unmethodical and at 
times hazy in his reminiscences. The writer 
"checked up" on all of his leading statements. 
Those quoted successfully withstood the severest 
tests. 

The late Charles A. Dana, of the New York Sun, 
Assistant Secretary of War in the Lincoln admin- 
istration, in his admirable address to the New 
Haven Colony Historical Society on May 10, 1896, 
said of Lincoln : '^He was the least faulty in his 
conclusions of any man that I have ever knoivn. 
He never stepped too soon, and he never stepped 
too late/' 

The late Col. A. K. McClure, of the Philadelphia 
Times, whose insight into Lincoln's personality 
came from personal knowledge, said this : ^'Mr. 
Lincoln gave his confidence to no living man with- 
out reservation. He trusted many, 'but he trusted 
only ivitMn the carefully studied limitations of 
their usefulness, and when he trusted he confided, 
as a rule, only to the extent necessary to make that 
trust available." 

These two propositions should be kept in mind 
in the contemplation of Lincoln's participation in 
the prohibition campaign in 1855. He was paid 
by William B. Ogden, of the Chicago & North- 
western Railroad, and others for furnishing the 



12 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

''brains" of the campaign. He was a consistent 
fighter for temperance, but with his knowledge of 
political factors he doubtless was not surprised 
when the temperance people were robbed of a 
victory through intimidation and fraud. 

Abraham Lincoln was a man of God in the tru- 
est sense. Perhaps it was his firm reliance on God 
and his belief in an overruling Providence that 
inclined him toward the ministers. Henry Ward 
Beecher, Bishop Matthew Simpson, Phineas D. 
Gurley, Henry W. Bellows, and James Smith were 
among his advisers. The Lincoln student will do 
well to read about Lincoln and Father Chiniquy, 
a victim of conspiracy, and how Chiniquy was 
saved from going to prison in 1856 by Lincoln; 
also about Lincoln and Colonel James F. Jaquess, 
of the 73rd Illinois Regiment, a Methodist 
preacher, who in 1863, with Lincoln's knowledge 
and assistance, undertook a peace mission to the 
Confederate government. When these two signifi- 
cant incidents are analyzed, it will not appear sur- 
prising that Lincoln equipped the Rev. James B. 
Merwin with a pass written and signed by himself, 
supporting him through Generals Winfield Scott 
and Benjamin F. Butler, and kept him at work 
during the war talking temperance to the soldiers. 

If unusual prominence is given to Merwin's 
documents and data, it is because Abraham Lin- 
coln's interest in and activity for the prohibition 
of the sale and use of intoxicating liquor as a 
beverage have not hitherto been fully appreciated. 



PREFACE 13 

This volume will serve a useful purpose if by 
presenting documentary proof it lifts Lincoln's 
interest in the suppression of intemperance to its 
proper level — to a plane of equality with objects 
deeply cherished by him. 

Included in the collateral matter in the Appen- 
dix are the Maine prohibition act of 1851, and 
the Illinois prohibition act of 1855 drafted by 
Lincoln, and reviewed by B. S. Edwards and 
Stephen T, Logan, the latter at one time Lincoln's 
law partner, and other Eepublicans of the Illinois 
Legislature of 1855. Lincoln used the Maine law 
to some extent as a basic guide, but the Illinois 
law was a much more perfect piece of legal mech- 
anism. The Illinois organization was called 
the "Illinois State Maine Law Alliance." Also in 
the Appendix will be found data with reference to 
the passage of the Illinois prohibition act and its 
fate in the referendum election in June, 1855. In- 
cluded also are reminiscences by James B. Merwin 
not essential to a concise record of Lincoln as a 
temperance man, and letters on the credibility of 
Merwin from Robert T. Lincoln, A. J. Baber, 
banker, and C. McDougall, medical director, De- 
partment of the East, U. S. A. In view of Presi- 
dent Lincoln's installation of Merwin as a tem- 
perance worker in the army — an innovation sup- 
ported by Generals Scott, Butler, and Dix — 
"character witnesses" for Merwin are superfluous, 
but they may be regarded as illuminating. Robert 
T. Lincoln's letter is included because of the writ- 



14 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

er's respect for Mr. Lincoln's all-around judgment. 
What he says does not conflict with documentary 
proof. 

The writer is the owner of the more important 
documents used in this volume. If their genuine- 
ness or purport is challenged, the lovers of truth 
may rest assured that only the truth is desired, 
as only the truth will survive. 

C. T. W. 



INTEODUCTION 

The one controlling motif of Lincoln's life was 
the consistent determination to do that which he 
thought was right, and it did not matter one whit 
how that course affected him, or anyone else, or 
anything. I affirm that to love truth for truth's 
sake is the principal part of perfection in this 
world. That, above all other things, this man did. 
He was honest in act, honest in word, and honest 
in thought. The crime of sham was not his. He 
recognized the perfidy of pretense and the wicked- 
ness of make-believe, and he abhorred them with 
the wholesome hate they merit. And just as this 
inherent honesty was his chief personal character- 
istic, so in like manner was that quality of patri- 
otism which moved him to measure his every act 
from his earliest manhood to the date of his death 
by how, in his good judgment, he could do the 
most for his country's welfare. This patriotism 
is our lesson. It was not the patriotism that was 
born of extremities ; it was not that fire, splendid 
as it is, which burns in the souls of men only when 
their country is in danger; his patriotism was not 
the patriotism stirred only by martial music. It 
was the patriotism of good citizenship, at the fire- 
side, the plow, the mart, in low places and in high 
places, in season and out of season; it was the 
15 



16 LINCOLN AND PBOHIBITION 

patriotism which caused him to make his coun- 
try's welfare his owu business and to interest him- 
self continually in the practical politics of his 
community. Always he believed and acted the 
patriotism of peace as well as of war. 

What a heritage is the lesson of the patriotism 
of this man to the people of this country ! What a 
challenge is his entire experience to those smug 
individuals who are "too busy" or "too good" to 
interest themselves in public afifairs; who sit with 
their hands folded, taking no part in govern- 
mental affairs, expecting everything to be right 
while they share no part in the burden ! Abraham 
Lincoln was never too busy or too good to take 
part in the practical politics of his community. 

Kecognition of Lincoln's true greatness has 
grown steadily since he died a martyr to a great 
cause, but none can fail to realize that during the 
past few years it has been enhanced mightily 
throughout the world. "There goes the spirit of 
Lincoln at the head," ejaculated the premier of 
England when he saw the advance guard of 
American soldiers sweeping forward over Flan- 
ders. And when the awful carnage ceased, the 
foremost of living philosophers, gazing apprehen- 
sively into the troubled future, murmured despair- 
ingly, "What Europe needs now is a Lincoln." 

If an Abraham Lincoln were and still may be 
the chief need of Europe, how much more surely 
should he be the guiding star of his own native 
land, the only land he ever knew, the only land he 



INTRODUCTION 17 

ever loved, except as his great heart was ever 
filled with loving kindness for all mankind ! We 
have not the man, but we have his spirit ; we have 
his faith, we have his words : 

"History is the voice of God sounding across 
the centuries the laws of right and wrong." 

"Let us have faith that right makes right, and 
in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty 
as we understand it." 

Will H. Hays, 
Postmaster General of the United States. 



JUDGMENT OX THE MERWIX DOCUMENTS 

The following statement is self-explanatory: 
Xew York, X. Y., Xov. 13, 1920. 

Charles T. White, of the Xew York Tribune, 
whom I have known for some years, has asked me 
to pass upon certain signed orders and documents 
of the Civil-War period pertaining principally to 
the activities of James B. Merwin. 

As manager of the War Department Telegraph 
Office from April, 1861, to August, 1866, I be- 
came familiar with the handwriting of many pub- 
lic men whose official dispatches were transmitted 
through the War Department. I do not under- 
take to explain the purport of the Merwin docu- 
ments. They furnish presumptive evidence that 
Merwin did useful work under the direction of 
President Lincoln, General Winfield Scott, Gen- 
eral Butler, and others. 

I recognize a number of the autograph signa- 
tures, and believe them all to be genuine, as well 
as the Merwin documents to which they are ap- 
pended. D. H. Bates, 

Author of Lincoln in the Telegraph Office. 



God raised up Abrahmn Lincoln to lead. 

Eis icisdom is a legacy to the children of men. 

His humanity challenges human selfishness. 

In his life he was an aggressive, skillful, unrelent- 
ing foe of the liquor traffic. He looked for the 
day rvhen there should no longer be in America 
a slave or a drunkard. 

In his death he was a martyr to the cause of 
Truth and Progress. 

Eis philosophy fits the American Present. 



CHAPTER I. 

LIQUOR DRINKING IN THE LINCOLN 
PERIOD 

Indulgence in the use of spirituous liquor 
during the early part of the Lincoln period was 
quite universal. Its use and abuse were not pe- 
culiar to any locality. New England rum, gin, 
and brandy found their way to the remotest ham- 
lets of the United States. Town meetings, mus- 
ters, firemen's parades, cattle shows, fairs, and, 
in short, every gathering of the people of a public 
or social nature resulted almost invariably in 
scenes which in the twentieth century would shock 
people into indignation, but which one hundred 
years ago were regarded as a matter of course. 
Private assemblies were little better. Weddings, 
balls, parties, huskings, barn-raisings, and even 
funerals were dependent upon intoxicants, while 
often religious conferences and ministerial gath- 
erings resulted in an increase of the ordinary 
consumption of liquors. 

General Neal Dow, the father of prohibition, in 
his Reminiscences, says that a clergyman, the Rev. 
Thomas Adams, who was pastor of a Congrega- 
tional church in Vassalboro in 1817, left the fol- 
lowing account of his observations when he first 
visited Maine: 

21 



22 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

"In 1817 the common use of alcoholic liquors as 
a beverage was universal, and no one seemed to 
regard it as in any manner improper. No retail 
merchant thought of doing business without keep- 
ing alcoholic liquors for sale. When I com- 
menced housekeeping I purchased two pairs of 
decanters, and should probably have felt mortified 
when visitors called, or the meeting of the Minis- 
ters' Association came round, had they not been 
well supplied with the usual variety. I well recol- 
lect that, on settling a pretty long account with 
a merchant, he felt so well pleased at getting his 
pay that he requested me to bring over my gallon 
jug and he would fill it with brandy. Of course 
the thing was done." 

General Dow, commenting on the well-nigh uni- 
versal use of alcoholic beverages says: 

"Go into any old-time, long-established country 
store in Maine, get a look at the books, if you can, 
covering the period from 1820 down to 1835 and 
40, and you will be surprised to find, as I have 
repeatedly found, that the majority of the entries 
are for liquor in some one of its many forms." 

General Dow quotes from D. R. Locke, of the 
Toledo Blade, a friend of Abraham Lincoln during 
the Civil War, as follows : 

"I was shown one set of books in a village near 
Portland of ante-prohibition times, which repre- 
sented a business in goods of all sorts. Eighty- 
four per cent of the entries were for rum. Boots 
and shoes, dress goods, sheeting and shirting, hats 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 23 

and caps and groceries, appeared at rare inter- 
vals, but rum was splotched over every page. 
Every village had its rum shops, and those of any 
pretensions scores of them. Lawlessness and 
order-breaking were common ; brawls and fighting 
were invariable on election days and all public 
occasions, and, in short, the State was demoral- 
ized as a State wholly given over to rum always is. 
It was the regular thing — rum, slothfulness, pov- 
erty and lawlessness." 

The foregoing is presented as perhaps nearly 
typical of American frontier life during the ear- 
lier part of the Lincoln period, before organized 
opposition to the rum traffic began to make itself 
felt. Thomas Lincoln and his son Abraham were 
frontiersmen. 



CHAPTER II 
THOMAS LINCOLN AND NANCY HANKS 

The early biographers of Lincoln, writing 
under the shadow of his towering personality and 
fame, have shown scant courtesy to Thomas Lin- 
coln, father of Abraham, and pity, rather than 
justice, to Nancy Hanks. In only one or two 
biographies are Thomas Lincoln and Nancy 
Hanks treated with an understanding heart. 

Thomas Lincoln, at the time he married Nancy 
Hanks, was a carpenter by trade, owner of a good 
set of tools for that period, and worked at his 
calling as skillfully as the average craftsman of 
his time. He was a man of character and probity, 
and at maturity was recognized as a sober-minded, 
melancholy-turned man, thoughtful and consid- 
erate far beyond his years. On June 12, 1806, 
Thomas Lincoln, aged twenty-seven, and Nancy 
Hanks, twenty-three, were married by the Rev. 
Jesse Head, a Methodist preacher and county 
judge. The ceremony was followed by a largely 
attended feast, following the custom of the couu 
tryside. The first child, Sarah, was born in 1807 
Nancy's dowry was an ordinary quantity of house 
hold bedding and linen. The Lincolns were hon 
est, frugal, generous, and helpful among theii 
24 



LINCOLN AND rROHIBITION 25 

neighbors, kind and agreeable in the family, 
friendly, sociable, and hospitable. 

"When Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were 
married," says Dr. Robert H. Browne, a Lincoln 
biographer, "they had reached full maturity, and 
were in the prime of mental and physical devel- 
opment, trained and seasoned in the knowledge 
and experience common among their fellow 
pioneers. They were sound-minded, able-bodied, 
healthy, well-grown people, without constitutional 
disease or infirmities. They had sober, temperate 
habits, resolute character, and were as free and 
independent as they were strong and healthy." 

Thomas Lincoln, though of medium size, was 
possessed of prodigious strength. He was good- 
natured, and slow to anger, but when imposed 
upon by some drunken bully or trouble-maker 
never failed to take care of himself, and invariably 
whipped the other man. The thorough trouncing 
he gave one Abraham Enloe, a trouble-making 
neighbor nearly a foot taller than himself, and the 
fact that Enloe came out of the battle scarred for 
life, probably had much to do with the Lincolns 
"pulling up stakes'' and moving from the sterile 
soil of Hardin County, Kentucky, to the wilds of 
Southern Indiana, where the soil was rich, game 
abundant, and where there were no reminders of 
human slavery. 

"Nancy Hanks," continues Mr. Browne, "was a 
healthy, pleasant-appearing, confiding, shapely- 
fashioned, if not a handsome woman. She had 



26 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

more than an ordinary education and knowledge 
of aflfairs for her time. She could read, write, and 
cipher, and along with her cares and increasing 
responsibilities taught her husband these rudi- 
ments, and prospered him in many ways, helping 
him to be as well fitted for the business of life as 
any of his neighbors." 

Mr. Browne says that shortly after the Civil 
War he met an old neighbor of the Thomas Lin- 
colns near Elizabethtown, who said that Thomas 
Lincoln was an agreeable man, who often got the 
"blues" and had some strange sort of spells, and 
who wanted to be alone when he had them; that 
at such times he would talk about God and his 
sacrifices, and how there was a better land; that 
Nancy Hanks was "joyful" about the prospect of 
leaving Kentucky; that young Abe was a "queer- 
ish" sort of a boy, and old for a six- or seven-year- 
old chap. 

"Taken all in all," says the historian, "there is 
more of Thomas Lincoln and more to his credit 
than can be found in the fathers of Penn or Wash- 
ington, the record of whose lives was fairly well 
kept in their time." 



CHAPTER III 
LINCOLN'S HOME TRAINING 

Abraham Lincoln had a home traiuiug which 
undoubtedly contributed to his total abstinence 
from strong drink. Mr. Lincoln's parents were 
Christians. Their home was a home of prayer, 
the Bible was read morning and evening, and 
Thomas Lincoln, the blundering, unlettered, some- 
what indolent but withal good man, conducted 
himself in a manner to make the boy Abraham 
look up to him, obey him, and respect him, all of 
his life. It is a significant tribute to both Thomas 
Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln that in a com- 
munity where the use of alcoholic beverages was 
very common neither father nor son ever became 
addicted to the use of them. So far as the writer 
has been able to discover, Thomas Lincoln himself 
was a total abstainer, although it is a fact that 
when he moved from Kentucky he included among 
his household belongings several barrels of whis- 
ky which he intended to use for bartering after 
he located near Gentryville in Indiana. 

When the customs of the time included free 
drinking at all celebrations, raisings, fairs, and 
large political gatherings, it is somewhat aston- 
27 



28 LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 

ishing to find that both Thomas Lincoln and his 
boy, first in Kentucky and later in Indiana, were 
able to fraternize with the robust men of the coun- 
tryside without forming the convivial habit which 
at that time was considered by the majority of 
people as almost necessary if a man was to become 
a social factor in the neighborhood. It should be 
remembered that the drinking habit at that time 
to a very large extent was a substitute for other 
entertainment. Books were scarce, and even if 
there had been available books in sparsely settled 
Kentucky and Southern Indiana, the daily asso- 
ciates of Thomas Lincoln and his kind could not 
have enjoyed them, for the very good reason that 
the average man in that part of the country at 
that time was not able to read or write. Abraham 
Lincoln's mother was considerably above the 
average in intelligence. She could both write and 
read, and the records show that she was very 
careful in teaching her children from the pages 
of the Bible. 

Charles G. Leland, the brilliant journalist, in 
commenting on the early life of Abraham Lincoln, 
says that Nancy Hanks's ability to read and write 
was a rare accomplishment in those days in the 
Kentucky backwoods. That conditions did not 
improve rapidly, along educational lines, is indi- 
cated from this comment by Mr. Leland: ''In 
1865 I saw many companies and a few regiments 
mustered out in Nashville, Tennessee. In the 
most intelligent companies, only one man in eight 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 29 

01 nine could sign his name. Fewer still could 
read." 

Abraham Lincoln's total abstinence, dating 
from childhood, stands out in remarkable clear- 
ness against a background of this sort. 



CHAPTER IV 

LINCOLN'S "FIRST TEMPERANCE 
LECTURE" 

Lincoln's adherence to total abstinence and his 
readiness to urge it upon others, are fitly illus- 
trated by a narrative in Abraham Lincoln and 
the Men of His Time, by Robert H. Browne, who 
knew Lincoln in Springfield. Mr. Browne says that 
at about the time of his removal from New Salem 
to Springfield, in 1S3G, there was a gathering of 
the neighborhood and village where they were 
building a new bridge. When the hard work was 
over there was a feast, merry-makings, trials of 
strength, and other sports, including much 
liquor-drinking. Raw whisky was sold at fifteen 
cents a gallon, and on this occasion there was a 
barrel of it. In the feats of strength a large man 
named "Sam," the champion heavy-weight lifter, 
with difiiculty raised six inches off a platform a 
pile of wood weighing one thousand pounds. 

The spectators, knowing Abraham Lincoln's 
prowess as an athlete, at once demanded that he 
also try lifting the pile of wood. Lincoln was re- 
luctant to enter the exhibition, but finally as- 
sented, and lifted the load clear a foot from the 
platform "without a grunt and without any 
straining." Some of Sam's friends shouted, "Do 
it again ; we didn't see it !" Mr. Lincoln, to satisfy 
30 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 31 

these, stepped on the platform again, saying as he 
did so, ''Sam, sit down on top of the pile." With 
Sam on top of the pile, Lincoln raised the big load 
almost as easily as he did the first time. 

Then the bung was knocked out of the barrel of 
whisky. Lincoln, being challenged again, took hold 
of it by the chimes, raised it from the ground, took 
a mouthful of liquor from the open bunghole, 
turned his head to the right, and spat it out on the 
ground over his shoulder. On releasing the bar- 
rel, he said in substance, as he related it years 
afterward when invited to drink, as he often was, 
"That reminds me of the first temperance lecture 
I ever made," following which he related the 
barrel-raising incident and quoted his first ''tem- 
perance lecture" : 

"My friends, you will do well and the best you 
can with it, to empty this barrel of liquor on the 
ground, as I threw the little part of it out of m|v 
mouth. It is not on moral grounds alone that I 
am giving you this advice; but you are strong, 
healthy, and rugged people. It is as true as that 
you are so now that you cannot remain so if you 
indulge yotir appetites in alcoholic drinks. You 
cannot retain your health and strength if you 
continue the habit, and when you lose them, 
neither you nor your children are likely to regain 
them. As a good friend, without counting the 
distress and wreckage of mind, let me advise, that 
if you wish to remain healthy and strong, turn 
it away from your lij3s." 



CHAPTER V 

LINCOLN'S ESSAY ON TEMPERANCE AT 
SEVENTEEN 

William H. Herndon, for twenty years Lin- 
coln's law partner, says' that Lincoln prepared a 
composition on tlie American government and one 
on temperance at the age of seventeen. 

"By the time he had reached his seventeenth 
year," says Herndon, "he had attained the physi- 
cal proportions of a full-grown man. He was em- 
ployed to assist James Taylor in the management 
of a ferryboat across the Ohio River, near the 
mouth of Anderson's Creek (southern Indiana), 
but was not allowed a man's wages for the work. 
He received thirty-seven cents a day for what he 
afterward told me was the roughest work a young 
man could be made to do. He prepared a composi- 
tion on the American government, calling atten- 
tion to the necessity of preserving the Constitu- 
tion and perpetuating the Union, which with 
characteristic modesty he handed over to his friend 
and patron William Woods, for safe-keeping and 
perusal. Through the instrumentality of Woods 
it attracted the attention of many persons, among 

^Abraham Lincoln, by William H. Herndon and Jesse W. 
Weik, D. Appleton & Co., New York, publishers. 

32 



LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 33 

them one John Pitcher, who afterward became a 
judge and lived to be nearly one hundred years 
of age. Mr. Pitcher lived at Rockport, Indiana, 
and all during the latter part of his life spoke 
with the greatest enthusiasm of the high qualities 
of the composition. An article on temperance was 
shown under similar circumstances to Aaron 
Farmer, a Baptist preacher of local renown, and 
by him furnished to an Ohio newspaper for pub- 
lication." 



CHAPTER VI 

BERRY AND LINCOLN AS "GROCERY 
KEEPERS" 

The liquor interests, in order to embarrass and 
get the "laugh" on the advocates of temperance, 
repeatedly have charged that the records show 
that Abraham Lincoln was a "grocery keeper" at 
New Salem in the early thirties, and that as such 
he sold liquors over the bar. While this was re- 
garded as a preposterous fling by those who knew 
Lincoln, and later by those who carefully studied 
his career, the liquor people insisted that the 
records sustained their contention. They had 
some color of support in the charge made by 
Stephen A. Douglas in the first of the celebrated 
joint debates at Ottawa, Illinois, on August 21, 
1858. Douglas, using a favorite trick of the 
period, charged Lincoln either directly or by in- 
nuendo with many trivial things, probably in the 
hope that Lincoln would consume the time al- 
lotted for serious discussion in refuting Douglas's 
nonsense. One of these charges was that Lincoln 
was "a flourishing grocery keeper in the town of 
Salem" at the time that he, Douglas, was a school- 
teacher in the town of Winchester nearby. Fur- 
ther along Douglas, continuing in his bantering, 
34 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 35 

said, "He [Lincoln] could beat any of the boys 
wrestling or running a footrace, in jjitcbing quoits 
or tossing a copper; could ruin more liquor than 
all the boys of the town together." 

Lincoln in answering Douglas on this occasion 
took time to consider a few of these "little follies" 
of his opponent, as he termed them, saying: "The 
Judge is woefully at fault about his early friend 
Lincoln being a 'grocery keeper,' I don't know as 
it would be a great sin if I had been; but he is 
mistaken. Lincoln never kept a grocery anywhere 
in the world. It is true that Lincoln did work the 
latter part of one winter in a little still-house up 
at the head of a hollow." 

Leonard Swett, one of Lincoln's closest friends, 
who "rode the circuit" with him from 1848 
through the fifties, in a reminiscence of Lincoln 
published in 1886 by Allen Thorndike Eice, of the 
North American Review, dwells upon this store- 
keeping incident in the life of Lincoln. Mr. Swett 
says that Lincoln, in describing his relations with 
his partner Berry, stated that a difference soon 
arose between him and his jjartner with reference 
to the introduction of whisky into the establish- 
ment. Berry insisted that, on the principle that 
honey catches flies, a barrel of whisky in the store 
would invite customers, and their sales would in- 
crease, while Lincoln, who never liked liquor, op- 
posed this innovation. "He told me," continues 
Mr. Swett, "not more than a year before he was 
elected President, that he had never tasted liquor 



36 LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 

in his life. 'What!' I said, 'do you mean to say 
you never tasted it?' 'Yes, I never tasted it.' The 
result was that a bargain was made by which 
Lincoln should retire from his partnership in the 
store. He was to step out as he stepped in, and he 
had nothing when he stepped out. But the part- 
ner took all the goods, and agreed to pay all the 
debts, for a part of which Mr. Lincoln had become 
jointly liable." 

Mr. Swett then relates how Lincoln, after re- 
turning from the Black Hawk War, "found his old 
partner had been his own best customer at the 
whisky barrel, and that all the goods were gone, 
but having failed to pay the debts, there were 
eleven hundred dollars for which Lincoln was 
jointly liable. I cannot forget his face of serious- 
ness as he turned to me and said : 'That debt was 
the greatest obstacle I have ever met in life; I 
had no way of speculating, and I could not earn 
money except by labor, and to earn by labor 
eleven hundred dollars besides my living, seemed 
the work of a lifetime. There was, however, but 
one way. I went to the creditors and told them 
that if they would let me alone, I would give them 
all I could earn, over my living, as fast as I could 
earn it.' " 



CHAPTER VII 

THE WASHINGTONIAN MOVEMENT 

The Washingtonian movement was organized in 
Baltimore on April 6, 1840, and within three or 
four years it had extended over the greater part 
of the United States. Abraham Lincoln seems to 
have been one of the leaders in this movement in 
the city of Springfield, his home, as shown by the 
memorable address made by him on February 22, 
1842, and given elsewhere. W. K. Mitchell, a 
tailor; J. F. Hoss, a carj^enter; David Anderson 
and George Steers, blacksmiths ; James McCurley, 
a coachmaker; and Archibald Campbell, a silver- 
smith, all drinking men of Baltimore, met and re- 
solved to reform. Their action was prompted by 
the impression made upon one of the members of 
their club for "social tippling" by a distinguished 
lecturer on temperance who spoke in Baltimore 
on the evening of April second. The tippling club, 
reorganized into "The Washington Society," not 
only kept the pledge of total abstinence themselves 
but induced others to do so. The movement spread 
over the land, until six hundred thousand drunk- 
ards had signed the pledge, of whom all but one 
hundred and fifty thousand, however, subse- 
quently returned to their cups. Societies for 
37 



38 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

women known as Martha Washington societies, 
were inaugurated in 1841. 

The force of the Washingtonians had spent it- 
self by 1843. The movement depended upon moral 
suasion alone, many of its most zealous support- 
ers opposing all resort to the enactment or en- 
forcement of laws against the traffic. Its main 
service was preparing the ground for more modern 
organizations which followed. As United States 
Senator H. W. Blair remarks of the Washing- 
tonians in his Temperance Movement: "There was 
no law. Enthusiasm from its very nature cannot 
stay. An explosion may after a while be repeated, 
but it is a poor organizer. . . . All the same, 
the explosion is good ; it rends the rock and is in- 
dispensable. To have created the necessity and 
to have made the way for such an order as the 
Sons of Temperance was of itself an incalculable 
good ; and the one hundred and fifty thousand who 
were steadfast have been a mighty power in sub- 
sequent reform." 

Abraham Lincoln joined the Washingtonian 
movement in the spirit of a missionary. On the 
same day that he made his address to the Wash- 
ingtonians in Springfield in 1842 he wrote a letter 
to George E. Pickett, who was preparing to enter 
the National Military Academy, saying: "I have 
just told the folks here in Springfield on this one 
hundred and tenth anniversary of the birth of him 
whose name, mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, 
still mightiest in the cause of moral reformation, 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 39 

we mention in solemn awe, in naked, deathless 
splendor, that the one victory we can ever call 
complete will be that one which proclaims that 
there is not one slave or one drunkard on the face 
of God's green earth. Recruit for this victory." 



CHAPTER VIII 

LINCOLN'S ADDRESS TO THE 
WASHINGTONIANS 

The following address was delivered before the 
Springfield Washingtonian Temperance Society 
at the Second Presbyterian Church, on February 
22, 1842, by Abraham Lincoln : 

Although the temperance cause has been in 
progress for nearly twenty years, it is apparent 
to all that it is just now being crowned with a 
degree of success hitherto unparalleled. 

The list of its friends is daily swelled by the 
additions of fifties, of hundreds, and of thousands. 
The cause itself seems suddenly transformed from 
a cold, abstract theory into a living, breathing, 
active, and powerful chieftain, going forth "con- 
quering and to conquer." The citadels of his great 
adversary are daily being stormed and disman- 
tled ; his temples and his altars, where the rites of 
his idolatrous worship have long been performed, 
and where human sacrifices have long been wont 
to be made, are daily desecrated and deserted. 
The trump of the conqueror's fame is sounding 
from hill to hill, from sea to sea, and from land to 
land, and calling millions to his standard at a 
blast. 

40 




Lincoln in 1847 — His First Photograph 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION il 

For this new and splendid success we heartily 
rejoice. That that success is so much greater now 
than heretofore is doubtless owing to rational 
causes; and if we would have it continue, we shall 
do well to inquire what those causes are. 

The warfare heretofore waged against the 
demon intemperance has, somehow or other, been 
erroneous. Either the champions engaged, or the 
tactics they adopted, have not been the most 
proper. These champions, for the most part, have 
been preachers, lawyers, and hired agents; be- 
tween these and the mass of mankind there is a 
want of approachahility, if the term be admissible, 
partial, at least, fatal to their success. They are 
supposed to have no sympathy of feeling or in- 
terest with those very persons whom it is their 
object to convince and persuade. 

And, again, it is so easy and so common to 
ascribe motives to men of these classes, other than 
those they profess to act upon. The preacher, it 
is said, advocates temperance because he is a 
fanatic, and desires a union of the church and 
state; the lawyer from his pride, and vanity of 
hearing himself speak ; and the hired agent for his 
salary. 

But when one who has long been known as a 
victim of intemperance bursts the fetters that 
have bound him and appears before his neighbors 
"clothed and in his right mind," a redeemed 
specimen of long-lost humanity, and stands up 
with tears of joy trembling in his eyes, to tell of 



42 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

the miseries once endured now to be endured no 
more forever, of his once naked and starving chil- 
dren, now clad and fed comfortably, of a wife, 
long weighed down with woe, weeping, and a 
broken heart, now restored to health, happiness, 
and a renewed affection, and how easily it is all 
done, once it is resolved to be done, how simple 
his language! There is a logic and an eloquence 
in it that few with human feelings can resist. 
They cannot say that he desires a union of church 
and state, for he is not a church-member; they 
cannot say he is vain of hearing himself speak, for 
his whole demeanor shows he would gladly avoid 
speaking at all ; they cannot say he speaks for pay, 
for he receives none, and asks for none. Nor can 
his sincerity in any way be doubted or his sym- 
pathy for those he would persuade to imitate his 
example be denied. 

In my judgment it is to the battles of this new 
class of champions that our late success is greatly, 
perhaps chiefly, owing. But had the old-school 
champions themselves been of the most wise se- 
lecting? Was their system of tactics the most 
judicious? It seems to me it was not. Too much 
denunciation against dram-sellers and dram- 
drinkers was indulged in. This, I think, was both 
impolitic and unjust. It was impolitic because 
it is not much in the nature of man to be driven to 
anything, still less to be driven about that which 
is exclusively his own business, and least of all 
where such driving is to be submitted to at the 



LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 43 

expense of pecuniary interest or burning appetite. 
When the dram-seller and drinker were inces- 
santly told, not in the accents of entreaty and per- 
suasion, diffidently addressed by erring man to an 
erring brother, but in the thundering tones of 
anathema and denunciation, with which the lordly 
judge often groups together all the crimes of the 
felon's life, and thrusts them in his face just ere 
he passes sentence of death upon him, that they 
were the authors of all the vice and misery and 
crime in the laud ; that they were the manufac- 
turers and material of all the thieves and robbers 
and murderers that infest the earth; that their 
houses were the workshops of the devil, and that 
their persons should be shunned by all the good 
and virtuous, as moral pestilences — I say, when 
they were told all this, and in this way, it is not 
wonderful that they were slow, very slow, to 
acknowledge the truth of such denunciations, and 
to join the ranks of their denouncers, in a hue and 
cry against themselves. 

To have expected them to do otherwise than 
they did — to have expected them not to meet de- 
nunciation with denunciation, crimination with 
crimination, and anathema with anathema — was 
to expect a reversal of human nature which is 
God's decree, and can never be reversed. 

When the conduct of men is desigiied to be in- 
fluenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, 
should ever be adopted. It is an old and true 
maxim "that a drop of honey catches more flies 



44 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

than a gallon of gall." So with men. If you 
would win a man to your cause, first convince him 
that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a 
drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say 
what he will, is the great high-road to his reason, 
and which, when once gained, you will find but 
little trouble in convincing his judgment of the 
justice of your cause, if, indeed, that cause really 
be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate 
to his judgment, or to command his action, or to 
mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and 
he will retreat within himself, close all the 
avenues to his head and his heart, and though your 
cause be naked truth itself, transformed to the 
heaviest lance, harder than steel, and sharper than 
steel can be made, and though you throw it with 
more than Herculean force and precision, you 
shall be no more able to pierce him than to pene- 
trate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye- 
straw. Such is man, and so must he be under- 
stood by those who would lead him, even to his 
own best interests. 

On this point the Washingtonians greatly excel 
the temperance advocates of former times. Those 
whom they desire to convince and persuade are 
their old friends and companions. They know 
they are not demons, nor even the worst of men ; 
they know that generally they are kind, generous, 
and charitable, even beyond the example of their 
more staid and sober neighbors. They are prac- 
tical philanthropists; and they glow with a gen- 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 45 

erous and brotherly zeal, that mere theorizers are 
incapable of feeling. Benevolence and charity 
possess their hearts entirely ; and out of the abun- 
dance of their hearts their tongues give utter- 
ance, "Love through all their actions runs, and all 
their words are mild" : in this spirit they speak 
and act, and in the same they are heard and re- 
garded. And when such is the temper of the ad- 
vocate, and such of the audience, no good cause 
can be unsuccessful. But I have said that denun- 
ciations against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers 
are unjust, as well as impolitic. Let us see. 

I have not inquired at what period of time the 
use of intoxicating liquors commenced; nor is it 
important to know. It is suflScient that to all of us 
who now inhabit the world, the practice of drink- 
ing them is just as old as the world itself, that is, 
we have seen the one, just as long as we have seen 
the other. When all such of us as have now 
reached the years of maturity first opened our 
eyes upon the stage of existence, we found intoxi- 
cating liquors recognized by everybody, used by 
everybody, repudiated by nobody. It commonly 
entered into the first draught of the infant, and 
the last draught of the dying man. From the side- 
board of the parson down to the ragged pocket of 
the houseless loafer it was constantly found. 
Physicians prescribed it, in this, that, and the 
other disease ; government provided it for soldiers 
and sailors; and to have a rolling or raising, a 
husking or "hoe-down" anywhere about without it, 



46 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

was positively insufferahle. So too it was every- 
where a respectable article of manufacture and of 
merchandise. The making of it was regarded as an 
honorable livelihood, and he who could make most 
was the most enterprising and respectable. Large 
and small manufactories of it were everywhere 
erected, in which all the earthly goods of their 
owners were invested. Wagons drew it from town 
to town ; boats bore it from clime to clime, and the 
winds wafted it from nation to nation; and mer- 
chants bought and sold it, by wholesale and re- 
tail, with precisely the same feelings on the part 
of the seller, buyer, and by-stander as are felt at 
the selling and buying of plows, beef, bacon, or 
any other of the real necessaries of life. Univer- 
sal public opinion not only tolerated but recog- 
nized and adopted its use. 

It is true, that even then it was known and 
acknowledged that many were greatly injured by 
it; but none seemed to think the injury arose 
from the use of a bad thing, but from the abuse 
of a very good thing. The victims of it were to 
be pitied and compassionated, just as are the heirs 
of consumption and other hereditary diseases. 
Their failing was treated as a misfortune, and 
not as a crime, or even as a disgrace. 

If, then, what I have been saying is true, is it 
wonderful, that some should think and act now as 
all thought and acted twenty years ago, and is it 
just to assail, condemn, or despise them for doing 
so ? The universal sense of mankind, on any sub- 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 47 

ject, is an argument, or at least au influence, not 
easily overcome. The success of the argument in 
favor of the existence of an overruling Providence, 
mainly depends upon that sense; and men ought 
not, in justice, to be denounced for yielding to it 
in any case, or giving it up slowly, especially 
when they are backed by interest, fixed habits, or 
burning appetites. 

Another error, as it seems to me, into which the 
old reformers fell, was the position that all ha- 
bitual drunkards were utterly incorrigible, and 
therefore, must be turned adrift, and damned 
without remedy, in order that the grace of tem- 
perance might abound to the temperate then and 
to all mankind some hundreds of years thereafter. 
There is in this something so repugnant to hu- 
manity, so uncharitable, so cold-blooded and feel- 
ingless, that it never did nor never can enlist 
the enthusiasm of a popular cause. We could not 
love the man who taught it — we could not hear 
him with patience. The heart could not throw 
open its portals to it, the generous man could not 
adopt it, it could not mix with his blood. It 
looked so fiendishly selfish, so like throwing 
fathers and brothers overboard, to lighten the boat 
for our security — that the noble-minded shrank 
from the manifest meanness of the thing. And 
besides this, the benefits of a reformation to be 
effected by such a system were too remote in point 
of time, to warmly engage many in its behalf. 
Few can be induced to labor exclusively for pes- 



48 LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 

terity; and none will do it enthusiastically. Pos- 
terity has done nothing for us ; and theorize on it 
as we may, practically we shall do very little for 
it unless we are made to think, we are, at the 
same time, doing something for ourselves. 

What an ignorance of human nature does it ex- 
hibit, to ask or expect a whole community to rise 
up and labor for the temporal happiness of others, 
after themselves shall be consigned to the dust, a 
majority of which community take no pains what- 
ever to secure their own eternal welfare at no 
greater distant day. Great distance in either time 
or space has wonderful power to lull and render 
quiescent the human mind. Pleasures to be en- 
joyed, or pains to be endured, after we shall be 
dead and gone, are but little regarded, even in our 
own cases, and much less in the case of others. 

Still, in addition to all this, there is something 
so ludicrous in promises of good or threats of 
evil, a great way off, as to render the whole sub- 
ject with which they are connected easily turned 
into ridicule. "Better lay down that spade you're 
stealing, Paddy. If you don't, you'll pay for it 
at the Day of Judgment." "Be the powers, if ye'll 
credit me so long, I'll take another jist." 

By the Washingtonians this system of consign- 
ing the habitual drunkard to hopeless ruin is re- 
pudiated. They adopt a more enlarged philan- 
thropy, they go for present as w^ell as future good. 
They labor for all now living, as well as those 
hereafter to live. They teach hope to all — despair 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 49 

to none. As applying to their cause, they deny 
the doctrine of unpardonable sin; as in Chris- 
tianity it is taught, so in this they teach : 

"While the lamp holds out to burn. 
The vilest sinner may return." 

And, what is a matter of the most profound con- 
gratulation, they, by experiment upon experiment, 
and example upon example, prove the maxim to 
be no less true in the one case than in the other. 
On every hand we behold those who but yesterday 
were the chief of sinners, now the chief apostles 
of the cause. Drunken devils are cast out by 
ones, by sevens, by legions; and their unfortunate 
victims, like the poor possessed, who was re- 
deemed from his long and lonely wanderings in 
the tombs, are publishing to the ends of the earth 
how great things have been done for them. 

To these new champions, and this new system of 
tactics, our late success is mainly owing; and to 
them we must mainly look for the final consum- 
mation. The ball is now rolling gloriously on, 
and none are so able as they to increase its speed, 
and its bulk — to add to its momentum and its 
magnitude — even though unlearned in letters, for 
this task none are so well educated. To fit them 
for this work they have been taught in the true 
school. They have been in that gulf, from which 
they would teach others the means of escape. They 
have passed that prison wall which others have 
long declared impassable; and who that has not 



50 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

shall dare to weigh opinions with them as to the 
mode of passing? 

But if it be true, as I have insisted, that those 
who have suffered by intemperance personally, 
and have reformed, are the most powerful and effi- 
cient instruments to push the reformation to ulti- 
mate success, it does not follow that those who 
have not suffered have no part left them to per- 
form. Whether or not the world would be vastly 
benefited by a total and final banishment from it 
of all intoxicating drinks seems to me not now 
an open question. Three fourths of mankind con- 
fess the affirmative with their tongues; and, I 
believe, all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts. 

Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing 
what the good of the whole demands? Shall he 
who cannot do much be, for that reason, excused 
if he do nothing? "But," says one, "what good 
can I do by signing the pledge? I never drink, 
even without signing." This question has already 
been asked and answered more than a million of 
times. Let it be answered once more. For the 
man, suddenly or in any other way, to break off 
from the use of drams, who has indulged in them 
for a long course of years, and until his appetite 
for them has grown ten or a hundredfold stronger 
and more craving than any natural appetite can 
be, requires a most powerful moral effort. In 
such an undertaking he needs every moral support 
and influence that can possibly be brought to his 
aid and thrown around him. And not only so, 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 51 

but every moral prop should be taken from what- 
ever argument might rise in his mind to lure him 
to his back-sliding. When he easts his eyes around 
him he should be able to see all that he respects, 
all that he admires, all that he loves, kindly and 
anxiously pointing him onward, and none beckon- 
ing him back to his former miserable "wallowing 
in the mire." 

But it is said by some, that men will think and 
act for themselves; that none will disuse spirits 
or anything else because his neighbors do; and 
that moral influence is not that powerful engine 
contended for. Let us examine this. Let me ask 
the man who could maintain this position most 
stiffly what compensation he will accept to go to 
church some Sunday and sit during the sermon 
with his wife's bonnet upon his head! Not a 
trifle, I'll venture. And why not? There would 
be nothing irreligious in it, nothing immoral, 
nothing uncomfortable — then why not? Is it not 
because there would be something egregiously un- 
fashionable in it? Then it is the influence of 
fashion ; and what is the influence of fashion but 
the influence that other people's actions have on 
our own actions — the strong inclination each of 
us feels to do as we see all our neighbors do? 
Nor is the influence of fashion confined to any 
particular thing or class of things. It is just as 
strong on one subject as another. Let us make it 
as unfashionable to withhold our names from the 
temperance pledge, as for husbands to wear their 



52 LINC50LN AND PROHIBITION 

wives' bonnets to church, and instances will be 
just as rare in the one case as the other. 

"But," say some, ''we are no drunkards, and we 
shall not acknowledge ourselves such, by joining 
a reformed drunkards' society, whatever our influ- 
ence might be." Surely, no Christian will adhere 
to this objection. 

If they believe, as they profess, that Omnipo- 
tence condescended to take on himself the form of 
sinful man, and, as such, to die an ignominious 
death for their sakes, surely, they will not refuse 
submission to the infinitely lesser condescension, 
for the temporal, and perhaps eternal salvation, of 
a large, erring, and unfortunate class of their fel- 
low creatures. Nor is the condescension very 
great. In my judgment such of us as have never 
fallen victims have been spared more from the ab- 
sence of appetite than from any mental or moral 
superiority over those who have. Indeed, I believe, 
if we take the habitual drunkards as a class, their 
heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous 
comparison with those of any other class. There 
seems ever to have been a proneness in the bril- 
liant and warm-blooded to fall into this vice — the 
demon of intemperance ever seems to have de- 
lighted in sucking the blood of genius and gener- 
osity. What one of us but can call to mind some 
relative, more promising in youth than all his 
fellows, who has fallen a sacrifice to his rapacity? 
He ever seems to have gone forth like the Egyp- 
tian angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 53 

the first, the fairest born of every family. Shall 
he now be arrested in his desolating career? In 
that arrest all can give aid that will; and who 
shall be excused that can, and will not? Far 
around as human breath has ever blown he keeps 
our fathers, our brothers, our sous, and our friends 
prostrate in the chains of moral death. To all 
the living, everywhere, we cry, "Come, sound the 
moral trump, that these may rise and stand up an 
exceeding great army." — "Come from the four 
winds, O breath! and breathe upon these slain, 
that they may live." If the relative grandeur of 
revolutions shall be estimated by the great amount 
of human misery they alleviate, and the small 
amount they inflict, then, indeed, will this be the 
grandest the world shall ever have seen. 

Of our political revolution of '76 we are all 
justly proud. It has given us a degree of political 
freedom far exceeding that of any other nation 
of the earth. In it the world has found a solution 
of the long-mooted problem as to the capability of 
man to govern himself. In it was the germ which 
has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into 
the universal liberty of mankind. 

But, with all these glorious results, past, pres- 
ent, and to come, it had its evils too. It breathed 
forth famine, swam in blood, and rode in fire; and 
long, long after, the orphans' cry and the widows' 
wail continued to break the sad silence that en- 
sued. These were the price, the inevitable price, 
paid for the blessings it bought. 



54 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it 
we shall find a stronger bondage broken, a viler 
slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed — 
in it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, 
more sorrow assuaged. By it, no orphans starv- 
ing, no widows weeping. By it, none wounded in 
feeling, none injured in interest; even the dram- 
maker and dram-seller will have glided into other 
occupations so gradually as never to have felt the 
change, and will stand ready to join all others 
in the universal song of gladness. And what a 
noble ally this, to the cause of political freedom, 
with such an aid, its march cannot fail to be on 
and on, till every son of earth shall drink in rich 
fruition the sorrow-quenching draughts of perfect 
liberty. Happy day, when, all appetites con- 
trolled, all passions subdued, all matter subju- 
gated, mind, all-conquering mind, shall live and 
move, the monarch of the world ! Glorious con- 
summation! Hail, fall of fury! Reign of reason, 
all hail! 

And when the victory shall be complete — ^when 
there shall be neither a slave nor a drunkard on 
the earth — how proud the title of that Land, 
which may truly claim to be the birth-place and 
the cradle of both those revolutions that shall have 
ended in that victory! How nobly distinguished 
that people, who shall have planted, and nur- 
tured to maturity, both the political and moral 
freedom of their species. 

This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 55 

of the birthday of Washington — we are met to 
celebrate this day. Washington is the mightiest 
name of earth — long since mightiest in the cause 
of civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reforma- 
tion. On that name a eulogy is expected. It can- 
not be. To add brightness to the sun, or glory to 
the name of Washington is alike impossible. Let 
none attempt it. In solemn awe we pronounce the 
name, and in its naked, deathless splendor leave 
it shining on. 



CHAPTER IX 
FATHER MATHEW 

The temperance movements in America — Wash- 
ingtonian and others — received a great impetus 
from tlie visit to the United States of Father 
Theobald Mathew in 1849, which visit was pro- 
longed until the close of 1851. While Lincoln was 
not identified with the Father Mathew movement, 
a record of it is indispensable in a comprehensive 
survey of the progress of temperance in America. 

Father Mathew was born in Thomastown, Tip- 
perary, on October 10, 1790, and died at Queens- 
town on December 8, 1856. He studied at Dublin, 
entered the Capuchin order, and in 1838 estab- 
lished a total abstinence association, which en- 
rolled one hundred and fifty thousand name§ in 
less than nine months. After preaching and work- 
ing in various cities and counties in Ireland, he 
visited England, Scotland, and Wales. 

In 1849, despite a stroke of paralysis which 
partially disabled him, he yielded to the solicita- 
tion of friends in the United States, and sailed 
for New York. His fame had preceded him. In 
Ireland he had been the coworker of Daniel O'Con- 
nell, the agitator, and declared publicly his sym- 
pathy for many of the principles avowed by O'Con- 
56 




I'ATHER Theobald Mathew, Temperance Kefukmek 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 57 

nell — especially those related to human freedom. 
He differed from O'Connell, however, in keeping 
his temperance movement free from politics. His 
sympathy for the American slave was made clear 
when he entertained Frederick Douglass at his 
home in Ireland. The famine period in Ireland 
(184546), prompting generous American relief, 
greatly warmed Father Mathew toward the 
United States. 

He was welcomed to the port of New York by 
great crowds. There were levees in the City Hall 
for two weeks. Archbishop Hughes entertained 
him. The warm-hearted priest met his first em- 
barrassment in Boston, where he was invited by 
William Lloyd Garrison to an anti-slavery meet- 
ing. He had been advised that it would be im- 
politic to link his fortunes with the Abolitionists, 
and his refusal to accept Garrison's invitation 
provoked the anger of the anti-slavery people. 
The Governor of Georgia, who had publicly in- 
vited him to visit that State, had discovered that 
he was sympathetic toward the slave, and in a 
most offensive letter to Father Mathew recalled 
his invitation. He again became a storm-center in 
Washington, where he was the guest of President 
Tyler at the White House, and of the United 
States Senate. On motion of Senator Walker, of 
Wisconsin, he was invited to sit within the bar of 
the Senate. Southern senators objected to such 
signal honor on the ground that he was a partisan, 
with anti-slavery leanings. A spirited debate en- 



58 LINCOLN AND PrvOHIBlTlON 

sued, participated in by Senators Seward, Clay, 
Cass, Walli;er, Hale, Foote, and Badger, the north- 
ern senators deprecating the introduction of the 
slavery issue. The Walker motion prevailed, 
thirty-three to eighteen. Even this incident favor- 
ably advertised Father Mathew, whose audiences 
were tremendous. He visited Eichmond, Savan- 
nah, Mobile, Little Rock, Hot Springs, Vicksburg, 
Pensacola, and New Orleans, making an extended 
stay at the latter jjlace, where more than twelve 
thousand people signed the total abstinence 
pledge. Notwithstanding the success of his cru- 
sade here and the desire on the part of leading 
Americans to have him remain, disquieting news 
from home impelled him to return to Ireland in 
December, 1851. In his absence the temperance 
cause rapidly declined, even in cities where he 
had established temperance reading rooms. The 
hard labor involved in recovering lost ground 
overtaxed him. He visited Madeira in 1854, with- 
out regaining his strength. His death took place 
in Queenstown two years later, and he was 
buried in Cork. 

His biographer, John Francis Maguire, M.P., 
says that there can be no doubt about the perma- 
nent good accomplished by Father Mathew wher- 
ever he went. While many of the pledge-takers 
relapsed into drunkenness, many, on the other 
hand, were permanently reformed. 

In the United States the Father Mathew move- 
ment served to stimulate the Washingtonians and 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 59 

other temperance agitators, and to advertise — if 
the term is permissible — the benefits arising from 
total abstinence. The Father Mathew societies of 
the Roman Catholic Church still attest his 
memory. 



CHAPTER X 
SONS OP TEMPERANCE 

The Sons of Temperance was organized Sep- 
tember 29, 1842, in New York city, the object of 
the society being thus described upon its official 
records : 

"To shield its members from the evils of intem- 
perance, to afford mutual assistance in case of 
sickness, and to elevate their characters as men." 
Women were not admitted. The organization was 
modeled in some respects after Masonic ideas. At 
the close of 1846 the membership numbered one 
hundred thousand, an increase of sixty thousand 
in one year. 

Profiting by the experience of the Washing- 
tonians. General Gary, the chief officer, said in 
1849: "We must seal up the fountain whence 
flows the desolating stream of death," and the 
National Division declared, "The mission of the 
order is to secure the utter annihilation of the 
manufacture of and traffic in intoxicating drinks," 
and that "we desire, will have, and will enforce 
laws, in our respective local cities, for the sup- 
pression of this . . . business." 

In 1866 women were admitted to membership 
and office-holding on an equality with men. 
60 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 61 

During the Civil War the nation-wide anti- 
slavery struggle supplanted every other interest; 
"the order nearly disappeared from the Southern 
States"; over two hundred Sons of Temperance 
boys fought for the preservation of the Union; 
"widespread paralysis settled upon the order/' 
As soon as the war ended, however, it began to re- 
vive, and in 1872 numbered nearly ninety-four 
thousand members. 

The society has always taken great interest in 
enrolling boys and girls in its ranks. In 1890 
at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, the National Di- 
vision called into existence "The Loyal Crusader" 
and in 1910 the different juvenile divisions were 
consolidated as "Crusaders of Temperance." 

At the present date the order represents the 
oldest temperance society existent in the United 
States. Subordinate, Grand, and National Di- 
visions of it have been organized in Great Britain, 
Canada, and Australia. 

Lincoln assured a deputation of the Sons of 
Temperance waiting upon him on September 29, 
1863, in behalf of the suppression of liquor-drink- 
ing in the Army, that they had his friendship and 
sympathy, his words being as follows : 

"If I were better known than I am, you would 
not need to be told that in the advocacy of the 
cause of temperance you have a friend and sym- 
pathizer in me. Wlien I was a young man — long 
ago — before the Sons of Temperance as an or- 
ganization had an existence — I, in a humble way, 



62 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

made temperance speeches, and I think I may say 
that to this day I have never, by my example, be- 
lied what I then said. I think that the reasonable 
men of the world have long since agreed that in- 
temperance is one of the greatest, if not the very 
greatest, of all evils among mankind. That is not 
a matter of dispute, I believe. That the disease 
exists, and that it is a very great one, is agreed 
upon by all. The mode of cure is one about which 
there may be differences of opinion. You have 
suggested that in an army — our army — drunken- 
ness is a great evil, and one which, while it exists 
to a very great extent, we cannot expect to over- 
come so entirely as to have such successes in our 
arms as we might have without it. This undoubt- 
edly is true, and while it is perhaps rather a bad 
source to derive comfort from, nevertheless in a 
hard struggle I do not know but what it is some 
consolation to be aware that there is some in- 
temperance on the other side too; and that they 
have no right to beat us in physical combat on 
that ground." 



CHAPTER XI 

LINCOLN AND PLEDGE SIGNING 

LiNCOLN^s aggressive adherence to temperance 
propaganda is adequately set forth in the Eev. 
Louis Albert Banks's book, "The Lincoln Legion," 
wherein it is shown that following an address by 
Mr. Lincoln in 1846 or 47 at the South Fork 
schoolhouse, Cotton Hill township, Sangamon 
County, Illinois, Preston Breckinridge, his ten- 
year-old son, Cleopas, R. E. Berry, Moses Martin, 
George Miller, and Uriah Hughes, all of whom 
heard Lincoln, signed the x)ledge at the time at the 
suggestion of Lincoln. Dr. Howard H. Russell, 
organizer of the Anti-Saloon League in 1900, 
hunted up Cleopas Breckinridge, R. E. Berry and 
Moses Martin at their respective homes and ob- 
tained affidavits, which were printed. After Lin- 
coln had finished his address he drew from his 
pocket a paper, which he called the "Washington 
Pledge," and added : "It is the same pledge many 
thousands of people have signed in connection with 
the work of the Washingtonian Society through- 
out the country. I have signed this pledge my- 
self, and would be glad to have as many of my 
neighbors who are willing to do so, sign the same 
pledge with me." 

63 



64 LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 

Lincoln asked the Breckinridge boy his name, 
and, on being told that the youngster could not 
write, he signed his name for him, and then with 
his hand on the head of the lad he said : 

"Now, sonny, you keep this pledge, and it will 
be the best act of your life." Berry kept the 
pledge, which follows : 

"Whereas, the use of alcoholic liquors as a 
beverage is productive of pauperism, degradation, 
and crime, and believing it is our duty to discour- 
age that which produces more evil than good, we 
therefore pledge ourselves to abstain from the use 
of intoxicating liquors as a beverage." 



CHAPTER XII 

LINCOLN'S INDORSEMENT OF HIS PAS- 
TOR'S RADICAL TEMPERANCE VIEWS 

Lincoln seems to have indorsed and circulated 
the radical temperance views of his pastor, the 
Rev. Dr. James Smith, pastor of the First Presby- 
terian Church, of Springfield, where Lincoln was 
a pewholder and regular attendant. On January 
28, 1853, Dr. Smith delivered an address in 
Springfield on the drink evil — a radical utter- 
ance at a time when prohibition sentiment was 
strong in Illinois. On the following day Spring- 
field citizens addressed to Mr. Smith a letter in 
which they said : 'The undersigned having lis- 
tened with great satisfaction to the discourse on 
the subject of temperance, delivered by you last 
evening, and believing it would be productive of 
good, would respectfully request a copy thereof 
for publication." The copy was furnished, the 
address was published in a sixteen-page pamphlet, 
and on the title page in the list of those signing 
the above request appears the name "A. Lincoln." 
Tradition says that Lincoln was the prime mover 
in securing the publication. Eleven years before, 
in the Second Presbyterian Church in Springfield, 
Lincoln had delivered his address to the Wash- 
ingtonians, found elsewhere in this book. 
65 



CHAPTER XIII 

LINCOLN AND THE ILLINOIS 
PROHIBITION CAMPAIGN 

Lincoln biographers, who have not identified 
Lincoln with the campaign for State prohibition 
in Illinois in 1855, doubtless will object at this 
late date to the association of his name with that 
movement. The documentary proof is not the 
only answer to any query raised. The burden of 
proof inevitably will be upon those who contend 
that Lincoln did not take a leading part in that 
campaign. In addition to the testimony pre- 
sented is the inherent proof in the established 
facts surrounding that campaign and the legisla- 
tion in the Illinois Legislature leading up to it. 
The surprising vote given for prohibition at the 
referendum election in June, 1855, was not an 
accident. The propaganda was by the friends of 
temperance. Lincoln at that time and for years 
before was an avowed temperance man. The mem- 
bers of the Illinois Legislature who voted through 
the prohibition law, which by the way, is the 
first law in the "Public Laws of Illinois for 1855," 
were "Lincolnian" in their political thought and 
conduct. Generally speaking, they were Repub- 
licans, Whigs, anti-slavery and churchgoing 



LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 67 

people. Very many of them were then, and after- 
ward, Lincoln's friends and political associates. 

''He never stepped too soon, and he never 
stepped too late," said Charles A. Dana. In the 
fall and early winter of 1854 and early part of 
1855 Lincoln was contesting for the United States 
seuatorship. Doubtless he had good reason, up to 
the time a senator was chosen, for refraining from 
too intimate identification with the State prohi- 
bition movement. It is a rather violent assump- 
tion that he was not keenly interested in it. Any 
such assumption would be unwarranted in the 
absence of proof to the contrary, but when the 
proof to the contrary is submitted such assump- 
tion must give way. Perhaps Lincoln's own 
method of reasoning when brought to bear upon 
a point like this may prove illuminating. In a 
speech delivered at Springfield at the close of the 
Republican State Convention, June 17, 1858, in 
which he practically charged the slavery sym- 
pathizers with conspiracy, he made this lucid 
statement : 

''But when we see a lot of framed timbers, dif- 
ferent portions of which we know have been gotten 
out at different times and places and by different 
workmen — Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, 
for instance — and when we see these timbers 
joined together, and see they exactly make the 
frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mor- 
tices exactly fitting, and all the lengths and pro- 
portions of the different pieces exactly adapted to 



68 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

their respective places, and not a piece too many 
or too few — not omitting even scaffolding — or, 
if a single piece be lacking, we see the place in the 
frame exactly fitted and prepared to bring such 
piece in — in such a case, we find it impossible not 
to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger 
and James all understood one another from the 
beginning, and all worked upon a common plan 
or draft drawn up before the first blow was 
struck." 

By the same reasoning, Abraham Lincoln, 
prophet of an ultimate extinction of slavery and 
drunkenness, took a leading part in the campaign 
for State prohibition in Illinois. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE ILLINOIS PROHIBITION LAW AND 
ITS AUTHORSHIP 

Investigators only recently came to an agree- 
ment that Abraham Lincoln wrote the 1855 Pro- 
hibition Law. The statement in the history of Il- 
linois by Davidson & Stuve, that B. S. Edwards, a 
Springfield lawyer, framed the Prohibition Law, 
and another statement by the Springfield corres- 
pondent of the Chicago Daily Press that Stephen 
T. Logan, Lincoln's former law partner, i)robably 
wrote it, are not in conflict in the light of recent 
research, 

Henry B. Rankin, of Springfield, author of 
Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, who 
made a thoroughgoing search, under date of Feb- 
ruary 28, 1921, in a letter to the writer, says: 

'"Lincoln prepared the first draft of the Law for 
submission to the Legislature. He took it over to 
Judge S. T. Logan's ofifice for any change the 
Judge thought should be made. They both dis- 
cussed the act as Lincoln had drawn it. The 
Judge held the manuscript several days and added 
such revisions and changes as he deemed would 
facilitate its adoption by the Legislature, and took 
it back to Lincoln. Lincoln approved of the 
69 



70 LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 

Judge's alterations. They then canvassed the 
matter as to who would be most proper to present 
it to some members of the Legislature to bring 
before the Legislature. 

''Lincoln advised that they both go over to the 
law offices of Stuart and Edwards (both of whom 
had gone over from the Whig to the Democratic 
Party after the compromise measures of 1850 had 
been passed) and submit the manuscript to B. S. 
Edwards, and if he approved it, then to insist that 
he bring it before such members of the Legisla- 
ture — on the Democratic side — who would intro- 
duce it free of any of the Whig odor of Logan or 
the Free-Soil W^higism of Lincoln. 

"This was done. Edwards consented, and 
adopted the act as they had prepared it. He 
copied the manuscript in his own handwriting 
and interested his party friends in the Legislature 
to secure its adoption. 

"All three thus had a hand in it. I heard Ed- 
wards, in a speech in the courthouse at Petersburg 
in 1855 advocating its adoption by the referendum 
then before the State, say that he wrote the Law. 
This was in answer to an inquiry about the 
'Search and Seizure clause' and its true meaning, 
and he showed (to his party friend's satisfaction) 
that it preserved the good Jacksonian doctrine 
that 'every man's private house was his castle' 
and inviolable." 

James B. Merwin, corresponding secretary of 
the Illinois State Maine Law Alliance, under au- 



LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 71 

thority aucl payment to piLsh the work, says that 
Abraham Lincoln wrote the Law in December, 
after his, Merwin's, arrival in Springfield, and 
describes his first meeting with Lincoln, and says 
that Dr. Nathan S. Davis, of Chicago, the leading 
physician of that city and an aggressive temper- 
ance advocate, took charge of the Chicago work. 
He says that Dr. Davis regarded Lincoln at that 
time as a sort of political mountebank, and would 
not engage in the prohibition crusade until he 
was assured that Lincoln was not to dominate. 
Mr. Merwin says that William B. Ogden, also a 
strong temperance advocate, president of the 
Chicago & Northwestern Railway and former 
mayor of Chicago, started the subscription list for 
the prosecution of the work with twenty-five 
hundred dollars on the express condition that 
Lincoln should guide the campaign. Lincoln 
therefore had a double reason at the inception of 
the campaign for not assuming a spectacular 
prominence in the work. He was his party's 
choice for United States senator, and the Chicago 
temperance men led by Dr. Davis, on account 
of Dr. Davis's personal prejudice, were somewhat 
hostile toward him. Merwin always asserted that 
Lincoln was the brains of the movement, and that 
on Lincoln's direction he carried the text of the 
proposed Law, before introduction, to Lincoln's 
lawyer friends for them to pass judgment upon it. 
In addition to the referendum clause, the first 
instance, it is said, that an important State-wide 



72 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

law in Illinois carried such a submission feature, 
the act contained a clause which indicates that its 
framer aimed to make the wife, or the widowed 
mother of a drunkard's sons, a material witness, 
for it says : 

"Section 38. Any married woman who shall 
complain that liquor has been sold to her husband 
contrary to law, or any widow who shall complain 
that liquor has been sold to her son or sons con- 
trary to law, may in the stead or place of the two 
residents required by Section 12 of that Act make 
the complaint mentioned in Section 12, or any 
other section of this Act, and may institute and 
carry on any prosecution provided by this Act." 

This suggests that Mr. Lincoln, from his ex- 
perience as a lawyer, recognized the fact that the 
home as well as the addict was entitled to more 
adequate protection, and his Law provided that 
the word of the wife or widow might be accepted 
as of equal value with the word of two ordinary 
witnesses. 



CHAPTER XV 
PRESS COMMENTS ON THE DRY LAW 

The record in the Chicago daily newspapers of 
the progress of the so-called Maine Law, through 
the debating period until its final passage 
through both Houses, is amply sufficient to show 
that this piece of temperance legislation en- 
grossed the attention of the lawmakers at Spring- 
field as hardly anything else during the session of 
1855. 

The Springfield correspondent ot the Chicago 
Daily Press of December 30, 1854, writes this 
paragraph with reference to the observance of 
the temperance law in Springfield at that time: 

''Most important of all recent improvements is 
the entire suppression of the open' liquor traffic. 
An acquaintance of mine has been very con- 
stantly employed for the last two days in a fruit- 
less search for a glass of ale." 

Under date of January 4, 1855, the same cor- 
respondent writes from Springfield to the same 
paper : 

'*It is confidently believed here that the Maine 
Law will be enacted at the present session." 

The issue of this paper of January 5 carries a 
half-column editorial praising the Rev. J. V. Wat- 
73 



74 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

son, editor of the Northioestern Christian Advo- 
cate. This is the same gentleman who, according 
to the affidavit of Major Merwin, was present at 
the time when Abraham Lincoln presented the 
gold watch to Mr. Merwin for his services in con- 
nection with the propaganda work of the Maine 
Law Alliance.^ 

Under date of January 5, the correspon- 
dent, writing of the legislative doings in 
Springfield, says: ''Logan [doubtless referring 
to Mr. Lincoln's one-time law partner, Stephen 
Logan] introduced a bill to repeal the laws au- 
thorizing the granting of licenses." 

January — ''Logan's bill was up for debate. 
This act paves the way for a stringent law which 
is to follow." 

January 16 — "The Maine Law Alliance is now 
in daily session [in Springfield]." 

January 20 — The same correspondent tells of 
the debate on the Maine Law bill, starting at two 
o'clock in the afternoon and continuing until 
eleven at night, with the legislative chamber and 
corridors packed as he never saw them before. 
"I am informed," writes the correspondent, "that 
Judge Logan had most to do in giving legal shape 
to the bill." 

The bill was passed at eleven o'clock after a 
stormy debate. 

Ayes — Allen of Madison, Babcock, Bennett, 
Boal, Brown of Knox, Cline, Courtney, Day, Dig- 

« See note, p. 86. 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 75 

gins, Dunlop, Foss, Foster, Grove, Hackney, 
Henry, Henderson, Hills, Johns, Lawrence, Lee, 
Little, Logan, Lovejoy, Lyman, McClure, McClun, 
McClain, Monlton, Parks of Logan, Parks of Will, 
Patten, Pinckney, Richmond of Cook, Riblatt, 
Rice, Sargeant, Straun, Sullivan, Swan, Turner, 
Waters, Wheeler — 42. 

Noes — Allen of Williamson, Bradford, Brown 
of Scott, Dearborn, Gray, Gregg, Heath, Higbie, 
Hinch, Hosmer, Hopkins, Holiday, Kinney, Mar- 
tin, McDaniel, Morrison, Preston, Pursely, Raw- 
lings, Richmond of Montgomery, Richmond of 
Schuyler, Sams, Seeborn, Towner, Trapp, Walker 
—26. 

The same correspondent's dispatch on February 
2 records that there were petitions presented in 
the Senate and House in favor of the Maine Law. 

February 9 — The Prohibition bill was taken up 
in the Senate, discussed and passed with a vote 
of 17 ayes and 7 noes. 

Although the passage of the Maine Law had 
been the uppermost topic during the session, as 
soon as the decisive votes w'ere taken it became a 
secondary topic of interest. Almost immediately 
the senatorial contest resulting in election of 
Lyman Trumbull crowded other news into the 
background. 

The Chicago Daily Press on March 7 began the 
publication of the new Prohibition Law, carrying 
it in four daily installments. 

On June 4 the same paper carried a news article 



76 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

about a prohibition rally in the city of Chicago 
on June 2 in which three thousand children took 
part with the weather ten degrees above freezing. 
The banners and slogans displayed in the street 
parades were strikingly similar to those used by 
the temperance people in later years. This dem- 
onstration w^as almost immediately prior to the 
referendum vote taken throughout the State on 
the adoption of the Prohibition Law. Chicago 
city voted against prohibition by a vote of 3,864 
against, to 2,795 for. 

The comment of the daily papers of Chicago on 
the election and its results seemed to sustain the 
contention of Major Merwin that the temperance 
people were robbed of an honest victory through 
gross fraud. The Chicago Daily Press of June 6 
says : "The 7th Ward gave 759 against, and only 
84 for prohibition. At the last municipal elec- 
tion this ward i)olled 593 votes, being 333 less than 
was polled there on Monday." The same paper 
enters into an analysis of the vote in various 
wards in the city where the brewers were in al- 
most undisputed control, quoting figures to show 
that the ballot boxes probably had been stuffed. 

This same newspaper in an editorial on June 9, 
conceding the defeat of prohibition, closed with 
this prophec}' : "Their [the prohibitionists'] 
triumph, though delayed for a time, must be cer- 
tain." 

A recently published letter written by Abraham 
Lincoln to Norman B. Judd presents clear proof 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 77 

that the '^powers of darkness" which Lincoln op- 
posed maintained supremacy through the illegal 
use of the ballot. Lincoln and his friends battling 
for prohibition encountered the liquor business in 
1855, and the liquor men won. With a recollec- 
tion of this same kind of fraud, Lincoln in the 
1858 campaign for the United States senatorship, 
writes as follows to his friend Judd : 

AsHviLLE, Oct. 20, 1858. 
Hon. N. B. Judd. 

My Dear Sir: I now have a high degree of confidence 
that we shall succeed, if we are not overrun with fraudu- 
lent votes to a greater extent than usual. On alighting 
from the cars and walking the square at Naples on 
Monday, I met about fifteen Celtic gentlemen, with 
black carpet sacks in their hands. 

I learned that they had crossed over from the railroad 
in Brown County, but where they were going no one 
could tell. They dropped in about the doggeries, and 
were still hanging about them when I left. At Brown 
County yesterday I was told that about four hundred of 
the same sort were to be brought into Schuyler, before 
the election, to work on some new railroad, but on 
reaching here I find Bagby thinks that is not so. What I 
most dread is that they will introduce into the doubtful 
districts numbers of men who are legal voters in all re- 
spects except residence, and who will swear to residence, 
and thus put it beyond our power to exclude them. They 
can and I fear will swear falsely on that point, because 
they know that it is next to impossible to convict them 
of perjury upon it. 

Now the great reassuring fact of the campaign is 
finding a way to head this thing off. Can it be done 
at all? 



TS LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

I have a bare suggestion. When there is a known 
body of these voters, could not a true man of the "de- 
tective" class, be introduced among them in disguise, 
who could, at the nick of time, control their votes? 
Think this over. It would be a great thing, when this 
trick is attempted upon us, to have the saddle come up 
on the other horse. 

I have talked more fully than I can write, to Mr. 
Scripps, and he will talk to you. 

If we can head off the fraudulent votes we shall carry 
the day. 

Yours as erer, 

A. Lincoln. 



CHAPTER XVI 
ILLINOIS DRY LAW, FEBRUARY 12, 1855 

The campaign for the passage of the Illinois 
prohibition law, like the Maine Law, was waged 
for months previous to its passage. Both the 
Senate and the Legislature which met in January, 
1855, were dry, being controlled by the Republi- 
cans and Whigs. Probably by consent of the 
leaders, containing many of Lincoln's personal 
friends, and his former law partner, Judge Ste- 
phen T. Logan, the prohibition measure, contain- 
ing a submission, or referendum clause, was dis- 
posed of first. It was passed by the Legislature 
on January 20, 1855, by a vote of 42 to 26, and 
by the Senate on February 9, by a vote of 17 to 7. 
As soon as the lower house had passed it, its ul- 
timate passage was assured. It was signed on 
Lincoln's birthday, February 12, 1855. It failed 
of final enactment at the referendum election on 
June 4, 1855, by a vote of 93,102 against, to 79,- 
010 for. 

As elsewhere set forth, the supporters of the 
measure doubtless would have prevailed if they 
had received a "square deal." 

The passage of the bill by the Legislature and 
its enactment through the signature of Governor 
79 



80 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

Matteson afforded an interim of several months 
for a campaign throngliout the State for its adop- 
tion. Lincoln, on February 8, 1855, had been de- 
feated by Lyman Trumbull for the United States 
senatorship. He now was free to assist the tem- 
perance forces. 

With great shrewdness Lincoln and those who 
collaborated with him in framing the Law, in- 
corporated a section providing for the printing in 
pamphlet form of fifty thousand copies of the Act 
immediately after the adjournment of the Legis- 
lature, and the sending of five hundred copies to 
each county in the State for general distribution. 
It was the proper distribution of these pamphlets 
that took Merwin, who was the corresponding 
secretary of the Illinois State Maine Alliance, 
around the State, and Lincoln accompanied him 
to many of the county seats. 

Stephen A. Douglas, who three years later de- 
feated Lincoln for the United States Senate fol- 
lowing their joint debates over the extension of 
slavery, doubtless caused the defeat of the prohi- 
bition measure. At that time he had a stronger 
political following than had Lincoln. A. J. Baber, 
banker of Paris, Illinois, writing under date of 
January 14, 1914, to Dr. John G. Woolley, says: 

''Politics never entered the question until 
Stephen A. Douglas came out in a great speech 
in the northwestern part of the State and told 
the people to bury 'Maine Lawism' and 'Abolition- 
ism' all in the same grave. Then the Democrats 



LINCOLN AND PKOHIBrTrON 81 

knew what to do. Tbey went in with a whoop 
against prohibition, and the Whigs and Republi- 
cans were mostly for prohibition." 

In his letter to John G. Woolley printed in The 
New Republic, a temperance journal edited by 
William E. ("Pussyfoot") Johnson, in 1914, Mr. 
Baber corroborates the contention of James B. 
Merwin that Abraham Lincoln spoke in support 
of the 1855 Illinois prohibition law. Mr. Baber 



"I don't know how often Mr. Lincoln spoke, 
but I will call your attention to one time. While 
at court session in 1855 my business called me to 
Paris (111.), and I saw Lincoln, Ficklin, Liuder 
and Judge Harlan sitting in the shade of the Paris 
House, and I went to where they were. Becoming 
acquainted with all of them, they invited me to 
sit down. I did so, and very soon Lincoln spoke 
up and said that Colonel Baldwin had invited him 
to come to his place and make a temperance 
speech, and it was about time he was going. 
Linder and Ficklin opposed his going — rather 
made sport of him, and Harlan said : 'Let him go. 
He will prove to the people that they have some 
rights besides what is in a jug.' Baldwin was to 
come after Lincoln, and didn't come in time, and 
Lincoln started afoot and walked to the place of 
.speaking, six miles out. Lincoln expected to meet 
Baldwin coming, but Baldwin came another road, 
and he missed him. It was a hot day, and Lincoln 
wore a long linen duster, and made the trip just 



82 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

to make a temperance speech — walked six miles 
on a hot day." 

This corroborative evidence by Mr, Baber, an 
entirely competent and conservative man, that 
Lincoln campaigned for the dry law in the sum- 
mer of 1855, although he was supposed to be so 
much engrossed with the anti-slavery agitation as 
not to be able to do so, and the further fact that 
Stephen A. Douglas threw his power against the 
prohibition law, is of more than passing interest. 
Both incidents are exactly in harmony with the 
life practices and professed principles of the two 
men — ^Lincoln believing that a moral idea was the 
mightiest thing beneath the throne of God, and 
Douglas not caring whether it was or not. 



CHAPTER XVII 

COLD WATER ONLY AT SPRINGFIELD 
NOTIFICATION 

LiNCOLN^s adherence to total abstinence was 
impressively illustrated at his home in Springfield 
following his nomination for President when the 
committee on notification, headed by Mr. Ash- 
mun, waited upon him. Charles Carleton Coffin, 
journalist and historian, was in the party. After 
the formalities were over with, Mr, Lincoln said : 

"Mrs. Lincoln will be pleased to see you in the 
other room, gentlemen. You will be thirsty after 
your long journey. You will find something re- 
freshing in the library," 

There were drinking men in the delegation, and 
what they expected to find in the other room to 
allay thirst may be imagined. The only liquid at 
their disposal was a pitcher of cold water — no 
wines or liquors. The night before neighbors of 
the Lincolns had called on them and suggested 
that the visiting delegation would need some re- 
freshment, wines or liquors. 

"I haven't any in the house," said Mr. Lincoln, 

"We will furnish them," said one of the callers. 

"Gentlemen," said Mr, Lincoln, "I cannot allow 
you to do what I will not do myself." 
83 



84 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

That was not the end of it. Democratic citizens 
of Spriugfield, thinking that their city had been 
highly honored by the nomination, sent over some 
baskets of champagne. Mr. Lincoln sent them 
back, thanking them for their intended kindness. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
THE PROHIBITION WATCH 

After the prohibition campaign was over, and 
before Jame>s B. Merwin left the State to go to 
Michigan to do temperance work, Mr. Lincoln, 
after conference with others interested in tem- 
perance, got up a purse, bought a handsome gold 
watch and chain, and after writing an inscription 
which was engraved on the inside case, presented 
it to Merwin in the office of the Northwestern 
Christian Advocate, in the presence of the editor, 
J. V. Watson, and others. The inscription in the 
watch reads : 

"Presented by the friends of temperance in 
Chicago to J. B. Merwin, Corresponding Secretary 
of the Illinois State Maine Law Alliance, as a 
token of their confidence and regard for his un- 
tiring energy and perseverance in the campaign 
of 1855 for I'rohibition." 

Below these lines appear the words: "Inscrip- 
tion written by Abraham Lincoln." 

Mr. Merwin made the following affidavit Octo- 
ber 12, 1916: 

''The aforesaid watch was presented to me in 
the year 1855, the presentation taking place in the 
editorial rooms of the Northwestern Christian 
85 



86 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

Advocate, there being present at the time the 
editor of the Advocate, J. V. Watson, Abraham 
Lincoln/ and others interested in the cause of 
State prohibition at that time. Abraham Lincoln 
was a contributor to the fund for the purchase 
of the watch, and wrote the watch inscription in- 
corporated in this deposition. 

"Abraham Lincoln had been associated with 
me in campaigning for more than six months, 
and without solicitation or prompting on the part 
of anyone, and wholly, as I believe, from personal 
regard, wrote the inscription already referred 
to." 

This affidavit, duly signed and witnessed, is in 
possession of the writer. 

New York watch experts have valued the watch 
as having cost between two hundred and three 
hundred dollars when it was bought new in the 
fifties. Merwin carried the timepiece all of his 
life. He said that he once dropped it in a mud- 
hole during the war, but that it was recovered by 
a negro, who was paid twenty-five dollars to walk 
around in the mudhole in his bare feet until he 
found it. The watch, at last accounts, was the 
property of the grandson of Lyman A. Mills, of 
Middlefield, Connecticut, whose wife is a younger 
sister of the late Mrs. J. B. Merwin. 



1 The files of the Northwestern Christian Advocate corroborate this incident 
except as to the presence of Mr. Lincoln. 



CHAPTER XIX 

ABOUT CHAPLAIN JAMES B. MERWIN 
AND LINCOLN 

The Rev. James B. Merwin, whose labors and 
documents form an impressive link connecting 
Abraham Lincoln with aggressive interest in the 
suppression of intemperance and the passage of 
a prohibition State law in Illinois in 1855, was 
born in Cairo, Greene County, New York, in 1829. 

Merwin prepared for Amherst College at the 
Brookfield Academy in Connecticut. He became 
the editor of a temperance paper called The Foun- 
tain in the city of Hartford. He was appointed 
the corresponding secretary of the Connecticut 
Temperance Society early in the fifties, and with 
others made a successful fight for State-wide pro- 
hibition in Connecticut, following the prohibition 
victory in Maine in 1851. After the Civil-War 
period he settled in Saint Louis, where for twenty 
years he was the publisher of the American Jour- 
nal of Education. He died in Brooklyn on April 
3, 1917, and was buried at New Britain, Con- 
necticut, with military honors by a local Grand 
Army post. He is spoken of by those who knew 
him well and heard him as a most effective and 
eloquent temperance worker and lecturer on tem- 
perance, also frequently lecturing on Shakespeare. 
87 



88 LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 

The temperance history of the period shows 
that in nearly all of the Northern States the anti- 
liquor people waged campaigns for the passage of 
prohibition laws like the Maine Law. The tem- 
perance people in Illinois sent for Merwin to take 
up the work there. His own narrative, given else- 
where, tells of the beginning of his association 
with Abraham Lincoln, who addressed a tem- 
perance gathering in the State House the night 
of Merwin's arrival in Springfield. 

After the defeat of the prohibition law in Il- 
linois in the referendum election in June, 1855, 
Merwin went to Michigan and other points, where 
he busied himself with temperance agitation until 
the breaking out of the Civil War. The record 
shows that he was regularly ordained as a Con- 
gregational clergyman, and the documentary 
proof is unassailable that President Lincoln, on 
his own initiative, directed him to make temper- 
ance addresses to the soldiers. In order to fa- 
cilitate this work President Lincoln wrote for him 
a special pass, which is of exceeding interest on 
account of its peculiarity. It reads as follows : 

Surgeon-General will send Mr. Merwin wherever he 
may think the public service may require. 

July 24, 1862. A. Lincoln. 

The pass is peculiar in that in writing it Presi- 
dent Lincoln had to make the five lines fit the 
space on the inside of an old-fashioned daguerreo- 
type case. Mr. Merwin says that the President 




James B. AIkuw ix's Ah.my Pass 
Written by Lincoln 



LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION S9 

prepared this pass with his own haud, and on his 
own initiative. This pass is owned by the writer 
of this volume. 

The preparation of Merwin's pass was subse- 
quent to an ineffectual effort on the part of the 
President and friends of Merwin to have Merwiu 
commissioned a major of volunteers, under in- 
struction to do temperance work among the 
soldiers in the army. The frustration of the ef- 
forts to have Merwin appointed a major affords 
a most interesting side-light on Lincoln's deter- 
mination to have temperance work done among 
the soldiers, the support of the idea by the most 
powerful men close to Lincoln in the Senate and 
House, and the obstacles put in the way of the 
carrying out of the idea by the War Department. 

As indicated by the documents, facsimiles of 
which are given, the plan to install Merwin as a 
temperance worker in the army started on the 
suggestion of the President himself by the sign- 
ing of a memorial setting forth the desirability of 
having the work done. This memorial was signed 
by President Lincoln's most stalwart supporters. 
The mere mention of these names in connection 
with the plan is of significance as supporting Mer- 
win's repeated contention that President Lincoln 
sustained him during the war period in his tem- 
perance work. The memorial apparently was' 
written either by Charles Sumner or Governor 
William A. Buckingham of Connecticut. 

On the back of this memorial, most of which 



90 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

document is in the possession of the writer, are 
the following indorsements: 

If it be ascertained at the War Department that the 
President has legal authority to make an appointment 
such as is asked within, and Gen. Scott is of opinion it 
will be available for good, then let it be done. 

July 17, 1861. A. Lincoln. 

I esteem the mission of Mr. Merwin to the Army a 
happy circumstance, and request all commanders to 
give him free access to all of our camps and posts and 
also to multiply occasions to enable him to address our 
officers and men. 

Signed 

July 24, 1861. Winfield Scott. 

Department of Virginia. 
The mission of Mr. Merwin will be of great benefit to 
the troops, and I will furnish him with every facility 
to address the troops under my command. I hope the 
General commanding the army will give him such offi- 
cial position as Mr. Merwin may desire to carry out 
his object. 

B. F. BUTLEB, 

Major-General Commanding. 

August 8, 1861. 

This document, carrying in order the Lincoln, 
Scott, and Butler recommendations, was sent to 
the War Department. According to Mr. Merwin, 
the officials there ''lost" it, and it was not "found" 
again until President Lincoln himself sent a sharp 
note to the War Department asking for its return. 
Merwin was not appointed a major of volunteers, 
the War Department officials objecting on the 



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45 






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ri^ 



' ;./M 



>i^ 



/■ 



)■: 



LiNCKl.N AND (IeNKHALS Sr( ill' AND BuTLP^R PETITION TO 

Have James B. Mekwin Designated as a Temperance 
Worker in the Army 

(Plate A) 



Li 












/: 



f....... 

^^.-^^.^^^^-^^.^..x^ .::^..(^., 






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^^■■4- 



DisTi.\(iuiSHED Public Men Petition to Have James 
B. Merwin Designated as a Temperance Worker in 
the Army 

(Plate B) 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 91 

ground that Merwin was merely a clergyman, that 
he was lame, and that it would be subversive of 
discipline and correct administration to make him 
a major. Lincoln and Merwin did not abandon 
their idea, however, for Merwin later was ap- 
pointed a chaplain of volunteers and assigned to 
duty under Surgeon-General William A. Ham- 
mond and C. McDougall. General McDougall, 
who was medical director of the Department of 
the East, with headquarters in New York city, 
writing under date of January 8, 1863, to Senator 
James Harlan says: 

"Mr. Merwin has been my invaluable cooperator 
in the good work in the Department of New York 
and it is not necessary to tell you what a worker 
he is — his services are known to the whole Army." 

The petition for placing Chaplain Merwin 
where he could do temperance work among the 
soldiers. President Lincoln's plan, deserves more 
than passing mention because of the character 
and standing of the signers. Students of Civil- 
War history cannot but be impressed by the 
prominence of the men who sponsored Merwin. 
Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson were United 
States senators from Massachusetts; James R. 
Doolittle and Timothy O. Howe were United 
States senators from Wisconsin ; Lyman Trumbull 
and 0. H. Browning were the senators from Il- 
linois, and close to the President; Isaac N. 
Arnold, representative from Illinois, was a close 
personal friend of Lincoln, served in the House 



92 LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 

with him, and afterward was his biographer; 
David Wilmot, author of the notable Wilmot Pro- 
viso, was senator from Pennsylvania ; James Har- 
lan and James W. Grimes were senators from 
Iowa. Senator Harlan was father-in-law of Rob- 
ert T. Lincoln, the surviving son of President Lin- 
coln. Thomas A. Hicks was governor of Mary- 
land ; Alexander Eamsey was governor of Minne- 
sota; Samuel Kirkwood was governor of Iowa; 
W. A. Buckingham, who with Charles Sumner 
drafted the memorial to Lincoln, asking for the 
appointment of Merwin, w^as governor of Connecti- 
cut. Austin Blair was governor of Michigan; 
Zachariah Chandler was senator from Michigan; 
James Dixon was senator from Connecticut; 
Richard Yates was governor of Illinois; J. L. 
Scripps was postmaster of Chicago, and founder 
of the Press-Tribune; Thomas H. Drummond was 
judge of the United States District Court; Alex 
W. Randall was governor of Wisconsin; A. B. 
Palmer was surgeon of the 2nd Michigan Volun- 
teers and professor of medicine in the University 
of Michigan. All of these men were outstanding 
political and social figures at the time, and strong 
supporters of President Lincoln. Their signatures 
on Merwiu's petition prove that there was a care- 
fully thought-out plan to have temperance work 
done among the soldiers. 

The autograph indorsement of Merwin by Gen- 
eral John A. Dix, and the official pass for Merwin 
and driver to pass the lines, are self-explanatory. 



CHAPTER XX 

LINCOLN AND GENERAL GRANT'S 
LIQUOR DRINKING 

The liquor interests capitalized to the fullest 
a humorous utterance attributed to Lincoln with 
reference to General Grant's well-known use of 
ardent spirits. When just before the fall of Vicks- 
burg, a certain committee urged Lincoln to re- 
move Grant because he drank too much whisky, 
Lincoln is said to have rex)lied : "If I knew where 
Grant gets his whisky, I would send a barrel of it 
to every general in the field." If Lincoln ever said 
it at all, he said it to stop the mouths of over- 
zealous men who utterly failed to ax)preciate that 
the great task of the hour was the preservation of 
the Union through the defeat of the Confederates 
at Vicksburg and elsewhere. Lincoln trusted 
Grant, and his confidence was beautifully justi- 
fied. It would seem from the record that General 
Grant, following his reproof at the hands of Gen- 
eral Rawlins, his chief-of-staff', never allowed his 
personal habits to interfere witb an efiicient dis- 
charge of his duties. The ''patness" of the re- 
joinder to Grant's critics under the circumstances 
made it one of the most famous of all the quips 
attributed to Lincoln, but no reasonable mind can 
hold it to be other than a jest 
93 



94 LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 

President Lincoln's solicitude about the danger 
arising from indulgence in alcoholic beverages in 
the army was a matter of common knowledge 
among those familiar with the inside workings of 
the government during the war. The imminent 
danger of disaster from a mistake in judgment 
due to temporary disability seemed to haunt 
President Lincoln. That his fears were well 
grounded is shown in the most vivid colors by a 
letter which General John A, Rawlins wrote to 
General Grant and which may be read in General 
J. H. Wilson's life of Eawlins. 

Subsequent history demonstrated that Presi- 
dent Lincoln's trust in General Grant was not 
misplaced. General Grant in his Memoirs speaks 
in the highest terms of General Eawlins. "He 
was," writes General Grant, "an able man, pos- 
sessed of great firmness, and could say 'no' so 
emphatically to a request which he thought 
should not be granted that the person he was ad- 
dressing would understand at once that there 
was no use of pressing the matter. General Eaw- 
lins was a very useful officer in other ways than 
this. I became very much attached to him. Eaw- 
lins remained with me as long as he lived, and 
rose from the rank of brigadier-general to chief 
of staff to the general of the Army — an ofiice 
created for him before the war closed." 



CHAPTER XXI 

"ALCOHOL THE ARMY CURSE" 

President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stan- 
ton, in addition to the natural burden of directing 
a great war, were compelled to combat the liquor 
dealers, the gamblers, and the keepers of dis- 
orderly houses. They were a menace and a hin- 
drance during the entire war, adding immeasur- 
ably to the inefifectiveness of officers and men. 
Excessive indulgence in alcoholic beverages was 
manifest on every side in the city of Washington. 
Drinking resorts, disguised and undisguised, were 
everywhere. Old street corners and vacant lots 
were occupied by bars, around which lay the in- 
toxicated soldiers and artisans. In the suburbs, 
under the shadow of hospitals and alongside 
camps, saloons and booths operated until it was 
estimated by General L. C. Baker, provost mar- 
shal of the War Department, and later chief of 
the United States Secret Service, that three thou- 
sand, seven hundred liquor dispensing places were 
in operation in and around Washington in mid- 
summer, 1863. At that time Washington had a 
population of about seventy-five thousand. On 
the eve of an important battle, when it was neces- 
sary to dispatch to the front on an hour's notice a 
train of one hundred wagons, not five government 
95 



96 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

teamsters were sufficiently sober to do their work. 
General Baker reported that nineteen out of every 
twenty crimes committed by soldiers and govern- 
ment employees were directly traceable to the rum 
holes, saloons and restaurants, cake shops and 
hotel bars. General Baker reported in September, 
1863, to Secretary Stanton that in one instance 
where, under his orders, saloons adjacent to the 
Quartermaster's Department had demoralized the 
entire neighborhood, and where he had seized the 
liquor stocks and broken up the business, more 
than one hundred government employees, deprived 
of drink, banded together and started a riot, 
which was suppressed only by the arrest of the 
rioters by armed soldiers. 

General Baker has this to say in a chapter en- 
titled "Alcohol the Army Curse" : 

"Could the people have seen what I have known, 
that important battles have been lost to the Union 
cause, and ranks of heroic men slain, through the 
maddening or stupefying effect of liquors, they 
would cease to wonder that defeat not unfre- 
quently saddened their hearts, when victory was 
confidently and justly anticipated. On fields cov- 
ered with our slain, might have been thrown out 
the black flag of intemperance, the single sign of 
the useless slaughter. To mention the names of 
some who were conquered by the rebels because 
first overcome by the demon who enslaves soul and 
body, would thrill and grieve every loyal heart. 

"Nothing in the conduct of the war pained more 



LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 97 

deeply, even to tears, our departed President 
[Lincoln] than this very practice. He once re- 
marked, in my hearing, to the secretary of war, of 

a great commander: *0f General I have 

but a single fear. I look upon him as the best 
fighting officer we have in the army to-day. If 
he can restrain his appetite for intoxicating 
drinks, he is bound to succeed.' We could fill 
pages upon this melancholy topic. 

"To no member of the Cabinet was this condi- 
tion of things better known and understood than 
to the secretary of war ; and no single subject in 
his department received more careful thought, to 
reach the evil and the adoption of some plan to 
prevent the shipment of the fire-water to the army. 
In his official orders the severest penalties were 
imposed on their violation." 

The defeat of the Union army at Chancellors- 
ville was an appalling blow to President Lincoln, 
his Cabinet, and the North. Secretary of the 
Navy Gideon Welles, in his exhaustive Diary, 
made this record at the time: 

"The sudden paralysis that followed when the 
army, in the midst of a successful career, was sud- 
denly checked and commenced its retreat, has 
never been explained. Whisky is said by Sumner 
to have done the work. The President said that 
if Hooker had been killed by the shock which 
knocked over the pillar that stunned him, we 
would have been successful. The news of the re- 
verse was a shock to the President." 



98 LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 

Noah Brooks, who was waiting in the White 
House at the time to see the President, says : 

"The President seemed stunned. Taking the 
dispatch in his hand, he passed into another room 
in the White House, where were two of his inti- 
mate friends who had been with him during the 
I'ecent inspection of the army, and handing it to 
one of them he said by a motion of his lips, 'Read 
it.' It was read aloud, and Lincoln, his face ashy 
gray in hue and his eyes streaming with tears, 
finally ejaculated : 'My God ! My God ! what will 
the country say? What will the country say?' 
He refused to be comforted, for his grief was 
great." 

Writing in 1867, after a period of reflection. 
General Baker makes this comment : 

"The alarming increase of intemperance, the 
stupendous frauds and bank robberies of late, 
never so bold and startling in this country as since 
the Eebellion, are a legitimate outgrowth in time 
of peace of those loose principles and practices 
which, during the conflict, were common in the 
highest places of power and responsibility; and 
were to a great extent, as already intimated, the 
natural effects of the demoralizing influences of 
the war." 



CHAPTER XXII 

TEMPERANCE AND DISCIPLINE IN THE 
RANKS 

The New York Evening Post, of May 22, 1862, 
took note of the activity of James B. Merwin as a 
temperance worker in the army. The regular 
correspondent of that paper, under date of May 
21, writes: 

"Some facts published by the House from the 
Military Committee show that many of our high- 
est ofiScers are very favorable to temperance in the 
army. Mr. J. B. Merwin went into the army to 
lecture to the soldiers. General Scott gave him 
the following written introduction and indorse- 
ment, 'I esteem the mission of Mr. Merwin to the 
army a happy circumstance, and request all com- 
manders to give him free access to all of our 
camps and posts, and also to multiply occasions 
to enable him to address our officers and men.' 

"This is important evidence from the greatest 
soldier of the country, upon a mooted subject — 
whether lectures, speeches, or concerts have any 
proper place in the army. Nearly all the regular 
army officers contended last winter, when the 
Hutchinsons (singers) were here, that it was 
grossly improper for any lecturer or singer to 
99 



100 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

have contact with the troops. The regular chap- 
lain might preach and pray on Sunday, but then 
he should confine himself strictly to religious sub- 
jects. General Scott thought differently. He re- 
peatedly said last summer and autumn that 'the 
American soldier in a volunteer war like this 
could not be treated like the soldier of European 
armies, for he is an intelligent being.' General 
Butler said : 'The mission of Mr. Merwin will be 
of great benefit to the troops.' General Dix ap- 
proved this, adding, 'The use of intoxicating 
drinks as a beverage is the curse of the service.' " 
The orders controlling the American army in 
the great World War with reference to total ab- 
stinence and entertainment prove that Lincoln 
and Scott in their day were advanced thinkers. 
But it was Lincoln who took the initiative ! 



CHAPTER XXIII 

LINCOLN ACCEPTED INTERNAL REVENUE 
ACT AS WAR MEASURE 

There is an inherent probability that President 
Lincoln signed the Internal Revenue Act of 18G2, 
under which the liquor interests stayed intrenched 
until 1918, with the greatest reluctance. The 
Congressional Record for the month of May, 1862, 
gives the debates in the Senate over the adoption 
of the act. Secretary of the Treasury Chase and 
Senator Fessenden, of Maine, urged the passage 
of the act solely on the grounds of war exigency 
— the government needing the money to prosecute 
the war. Senator Henry Wilson, of Massa- 
chusetts, himself the son of a drunkard of Natick, 
Massachusetts, battled strenuously against the 
passage of the act. He was aided by Wilmot, of 
Pennsylvania; Pomeroy, of Kansas; Harris, of 
New York; and Wright, of New Jersey. After 
worriment and agitation, induced by pressure 
from members of his Cabinet who saw no 
other way of helping out the treasury, Lincoln 
accepted the measure, with the remark to Secre- 
tary Chase, Senator Wilson, and Merwin, "As 
soon as the exigencies shall pass away I shall turn 
my attention to the repeal of that document." 
101 



102 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

Merwin at this time was in a position to testify 
convincingly of the President's mental attitude 
toward this piece of legislation. The President 
and Generals Scott and Butler had equipped him 
with the necessary orders for carrying on his 
temperance work among the soldiers, and a few 
days afterward the President, as before stated, 
wrote a special pass for him, enabling him to carry 
on his mission, under formidable natural handi- 
caps. 




Chaplain James B. Merwin 



CHAPTER XXIV 

LINCOLN'S LAST UTTERANCE ON 
TEMPERANCE 

President Lincoln^s last utterance on temper- 
ance seems to have been to Chaplain Merwin on 
the early afternoon of the day he was assassinated. 
Merwin, who, as shown by documentary proof, 
had worked during the war under the direction 
of the President combating intemperance among 
the soldiers, was carrying an important message 
for him to Colonel Alexander K. McClure, of the 
Philadelphia Times, and Horace Greeley, of the 
New York Tribune, with reference to General 
Butler's proposal to employ colored soldiers in 
constructing a Panama Canal. As Merwin was 
leaving, the President said: 

"Merwin, with the help of the people, we have 
cleaned up a colossal job. Slavery is abolished. 
After reconstruction, the next great question will 
be the overthrow and abolition of the liquor traf- 
fic; and you know, Merwin, that my head and my 
heart and my hand and my purse will go into that 
work. Less than a quarter of a century ago I 
predicted that the time would come when there 
would be neither a slave nor a drunkard in the 
land. I have lived to see, thank God, one of those 
prophecies fulfilled. I hope to see the other real- 
ized." 

103 



CHAPTER XXV 

LINCOLN'S ASSASSINS A DRINKING SET 

The ofladal record of the assassination of Presi- 
dent Lincoln and the trial of the conspirators in- 
dicates beyond reasonable doubt that the con- 
spirators, with the exception of two or three, 
were addicted to the use of alcoholic beverages. 
Dr. Samuel A. Mudd seems to have been a little 
less disreputable than the others, but taken to- 
gether they were entirely harmonious in their in- 
famy. Mrs. Mary E. Surratt was the proprietor 
of a country tavern frequented by Confederate 
spies near Washington. Liquor was abundant at 
every step of the plot for the killing of the Presi- 
dent. Mrs. Surratt also had a house in Washing- 
ton, and the frequenters of the country tavern 
made her Washington house their rendezvous 
when they were in the capital, which was fre- 
quently. John Wilkes Booth, the arch assassin, 
stimulated himself with liquor shortly before he 
fired the fatal shot. Herold, Payne, Atzerodt, 
Spangler, Arnold, O'Laughlin, and Mrs. Surratt 
were of the same moral stripe. The "hangout" in 
Surrattsville, in the country, was no cleaner than 
the one in Washington, and both were foul. The 
plotters against the life of Lincoln sustained their 
104 



LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 105 

respective parts iu a general plan which included 
in its varied phases the assassination of Secretary 
of State Seward ; the abduction of President Lin- 
coln and his Cabinet ; the murder of the President 
by presents of infected clothing; the introduction 
of pestilence into Northern cities by clothing in- 
fected with yellow fever and smallpox; attempted 
burning of New York and other Northern cities ; 
poisoning the water of Croton reservoir, New 
York; raid on Saint Albans, Vermont; contem- 
plated raids on Buffalo, Ogdensburg, etc., and the 
burning of steamboats, on Western rivers, govern- 
ment warehouses, hospitals, etc. Booth, soaked 
with rum, went through with his part. The vigi- 
lance of the government prevented a general con- 
summation. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

LINCOLN'S SECRETIVENESS AND 
CAUTION 

The answer to the natural query, Why did not 
Nicolay and Hay in their exhaustive life of Lin- 
coln give due prominence to his temperance ac- 
tivities in 1855, when he drafted the Illinois dry 
law? is that neither Nicolay nor Hay considered 
them of great importance. They wrote him down 
as a total abstainer and a friend of temperance, 
and they let it go at that. That fact was generally 
known. James B. Merwin offered them data con- 
cerning Lincoln's efforts in 1855 in behalf of the 
Illinois dry law, but they did not seem to want it. 
Lincoln never really confided in Nicolay. The 
latter knew all about Lincoln as President, but 
little about Lincoln as a man. 

Lincoln's partner, Herndon, in analyzing the 
character of his long-time law partner, says : "Mr. 
Lincoln never had a confidant, and therefore 
never unbosomed himself to others. He never 
spoke of his trials to me, or so far as I know, to 
any of his friends.'' 

Judge David Davis, who presided on the cir- 
cuit in Illinois which Lincoln and others ''rode," 
says : "I knew the man so well ; he was the most 
106 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 107 

reticent, secretive man I ever saw or expect to 
see." 

Leonard Swett is well known to have been the 
one whose counsels were the most welcome to 
Lincoln, and who doubtless did counsel him with 
more freedom than any other man. Swett says: 
"From the commencement of his life to its close 
I have sometimes doubted whether he ever asked 
anybody's advice about anything. He would 
listen to everybody ; he would hear everybody ; but 
he rarely, if ever, asked for opinions. Beneath a 
smooth surface of candor and apparent declara- 
tion of all his thoughts and feelings he exercised 
the most exalted tact and wisest discrimination. 
He handled and moved men remotely as we do 
pieces upon a chessboard. He always told only 
enough of his jjlans and purposes to induce the 
belief that he had communicated all ; yet he re- 
served enough to have communicated nothing." 

No biographer has made a "clean sweep" of the 
information concerning this many-sided man. 
Two or three years ago Gilbert A. Tracy published 
a good-sized volume of the uncollected letters of 
Lincoln. Many of them are of great historical 
importance. Nicohij^ and Hay and the earlier 
biographers had no knowledge of these letters. 
There are still many Lincoln letters which never 
have been printed. James B. Merwin was the 
man in surest position to know whether Lincoln 
drafted the Illinois 1S55 dry law. He asserted 
time and again on the lecture platform that Lin- 



108 LINCOLN AND PEOHTBITION 

coin did draft it. Lincoln trusted and confided in 
Merwin "only to the extent necessary to make that 
trust available." The Illinois dry law was the 
business in hand. As already set forth, the Legis- 
lature, controlled by Lincoln and his friends, 
passed the law. Lincoln's political acumen told 
him that the law would fail in the referendum. He 
was not ready at that time to father the movement, 
although he was the paid counsel for it. Neither 
was he at that time ready to take a stand for the 
abolition of slavery, as advocated by the radicals. 
"He never stepped too soon, and he never stepped 
too late." At all times he was against liquor as 
a beverage, but he was open-minded with reference 
to the best method to destroy the traffic. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

CROOKED ELECTIONS FOR FIFTY YEARS 

There is a natural hesitancy on the part of 
trnth-loving jieople to cry ''Fraud" in the absence 
of proof of fraud. Lincoln's reference to crooked 
elections in his letter to N. B. Judd (Chapter XV) 
deserves greater emphasis. The ballot-box staffer, 
repeater, and false registrant have indulged their 
remunerative propensity with surprising assidu- 
ity — and are still at it. Comment on the evil 
might be uncalled for in writing about Lincoln 
and prohibition, but for the fact that the liquor 
interests for two generations have had what per- 
haps may be called a proprietary interest in this 
treasonable, deliberate, and studied fraud. There 
has not been a fraud-free election in the city and 
State of New York since the Civil War, despite 
painstaking efforts to safeguard the ballot. Again 
and again the forces standing for law and order 
have been deprived of legitimate victory through 
crooked elections. Frequently they have tri- 
umphed despite the handicap. In the city of 
New York, to the personal knowledge of the 
writer, the liquor and allied interests for at least 
twenty-five years, have fostered — subsidized — the 
human agencies which have perpetuated and in- 
109 



110 LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 

trenched this fraud. Governors and Supreme 
Court judges have been the beneficiaries of the 
system, serving out their terms, many of them 
throwing their influence against organized effort 
to abate the evlL In all this nefarious history, 
the nursery, the hot-bed, the sprouting establish- 
ment, has been the liquor and allied businesses. 
The saloon has been the rendezvous of the election 
crook. In the saloon for two generations he has 
been schooled, equipped, commissioned and paid 
for his felonies. The "doggeries" seen in Naples, 
Illinois, in 1858 by the keen-eyed Lincoln were 
no different in their atmosj)here and output than 
the ^'doggeries" in New York city. They were 
actively hostile toward honest government in 1858 
in Illinois, and they did not change their spots or 
stripes. West or East, for two generations. 

When Lincoln battled on the Illinois prairies 
against slavery and rum, he battled against a 
similar thing in the New York Bowery. With the 
advent of jirohibition and universal suffrage there 
is the beginning of the fulfillment of Lincoln's 
1842 prophecy of a day when there should be 
neither a slave nor a drunkard in the land. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
IN CONCLUSION 

On the mantel fronting his desk in the White 
House President Roosevelt kej^t a large portrait 
of Lincoln. When Mrs. White and the writer 
called on President Roosevelt on the Thursday 
following his election in 1904, during the conver- 
sation Mr. Roosevelt, turning to the picture, 
said: 

"When I am confronted with a great problem, 
I look up to that picture, and I do as I believe 
Lincoln would have done. I have always felt that 
if I could do as he would have done were he in 
my place, I would not be far from right." 

Matching this tribute is one from another 
former governor of New York — one who, like Lin- 
coln, rose from deep poverty — Governor Frank S. 
Black : 

"The stamp of nobility and power which he 
wbre was conferred upon him in that log hut in 
Kentucky, that day in 1809, when he and Nancy 
Hanks were first seen there together, and it 
was conferred by a Power which, unlike earthly 
potentates, never confers a title without a char- 
acter that will adorn it. Groves are better than 
temples, fields are better than gorgeous car- 
Ill 



112 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

petings, rail fences are better than lines of 
kneeling slaves, and the winds are better than 
music if you are raising heroes and founding 
governments." 



APPENDIX A 

CHRONOLOGY OF THE ANTI-LIQUOR MOVEMENT 
IN AMERICA' 

1642 
The colony of Maryland passes a law punishing 
drunkenness by a fine of 100 pounds of tobacco. 

1645 
Connecticut prohibits the selling of intoxicating 
liquors to Indians under penalty of 40 shillings 5 pence. 

1647 
Drunkenness is prohibited in Rhode Island under 
penalty of 5 shillings, and selling to Indians under 
penalty of 5 pounds. 

1650 
Connecticut passes a law forbidding tippling above 
the space of half an hour at one time, or at unreasonable 
times. 

1654 
The colony of Massachusetts prohibits licensed persons 
from allowing excessive drinking, under fine of 20 
shillings. 

1655 
The colony of New Haven passes a liquor regulation 
law. 

1657 
Selling liquor to Indians in Massachusetts is pro- 
hibited under penalty of 40 shillings. 



> Condensed from the 1919 Anti-Saloon League Year Book. Permission 
of Ernest H. Cherrington. 

113 



114 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

1658 
Maryland punishes drunkenness by confinement in 
the stocks for six hours. A law passed in Virginia pro- 
vides that one convicted of drunkenness three times is 
accounted a common drunkard. 

1659 
Drunkenness at a private house in Connecticut is 
forbidden under a fine of 20 shillings. 

1664 
The Virginia Assembly passes a law prohibiting minis- 
ters from giving themselves to excess in drinking or 
riot or in playing at unlawful games. 

1668 
New Jersey passes a law prohibiting persons drinking 
after nine o'clock. 

1676 
The Virginia Assembly prohibits the sale of wines 
and ardent spirits outside of Jamestown. 

1677 
New Jersey forbids the sale of liquor to Indians. 

1685 
The Yearly Meeting of Friends in Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey declares against intemperance. 

1700 
Inn keepers in New Hampshire are prohibited from 
permitting townspeople to remain in their homes drink- 
ing on Saturday night or Sunday. 

1701 
New Hampshire imposes a fine of 5 shillings on 
drunkards. 

1715 
Maryland colony prohibits the selling of over one 



APPENDIX A 115 

gallon of liquor a day to any Indian, under penalty of 
3,000 pounds of tobacco. 

1719 
New Hampshire prohibits the sale of liquor to drunk- 
ards. 

1735 
The English Parliament forbids the importation of 
liquors into Georgia. 

1760 
Virginia and Carolina pass laws compelling ministers 
to abstain from excess of drinking and riot. 

The Friends of Pennsylvania make an effort to abolish 
the use of liquors at funerals. 

1779 
Vermont passes a law against drunkenness. 

1785 
Doctor Benjamin Rush issues his celebrated essay 
dealing with the effects of ardent spirits on the human 
body and mind. 

1789 
The first temperance society in America is organized 
by 200 farmers in Litchfield County, Connecticut, 

1790 

Congress enacts a law giving every soldier a gill of 
rum, brandy, or whisky daily. 

A bill is introduced into Congress taxing distilled 
liquors. 

1794 

The whisky rebellion takes place in western Penn- 
sylvania. 

Congress orders that a half pint of spirits or a quart 
of beer shall constitute a part of the rations of the navy. 

1801 
Congress withdraws the option of a quart of beer in 
the navy ration instead of a half pint of spirits. 



116 LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 

1802 
Congress passes a law providing that the President 
shall take steps to prevent the traffic in liquor with the 
Indians. 

1805 
The Sober Society is founded at Allentown, New 
Jersey. 

1808 
The Union Temperance Society of Moreau and North- 
umberland is founded by Dr. B. J. Clark in Saratoga 
County, New York. 

1814 

The following article was inserted in the Book of 

Discipline of the Church of the United Brethren in 

Christ: "Article II. Every member shall abstain from 

strong drink, and use it only on necessity as medicine." 

1821 
The following action was taken by the General Con- 
ference of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ: 
"Resolved, That neither preacher nor lay member shall 
be permitted to carry on a distillery; that distillers be 
requested to cease the business; that the members of 
the General Conference be requested to lay this resolu- 
tion before the several Annual Conferences; that it shall 
then be the duty of the preachers to labor against the 
evils of intemperance during the intervals between this 
and the next General Conference, when the subject shall 
again be taken up for further consideration." 

1826 

Doctor Lyman Beecher preaches his six famous tem- 
perance sermons at Litchfield, Connecticut. 

The American Society for the Promotion of Temper- 
ance is organized in Boston. 

1828 
The New York State Temperance Society is organized. 



APPENDIX A 117 

1833 

The Congressional Temperance Society is organized at 
Washington, D. C. 

The first national temperance convention meets at 
Philadelphia. 

1834 

Congress enacts a law prohibiting the selling of 
liquor to Indians in Indian countries, under penalty of 
$500. 

The Presbyterian General Assembly meeting at Phila- 
delphia declares against the traflBc in ardent liquors. 

1837 
The Maine Temperance Union is organized under Neal 
Dow. 

1840 
The Washingtonian Movement is inaugurated. 

1841 

The national temperance convention meets at Sara- 
toga. 

John Hawkins, of the Washingtonian Society, reports 
100,000 signers of the pledge. 

1842 

Abraham Lincoln addresses the Washingtonian Society 
at Springfield, urging a temperance revolution. 

The Independent Order of Rechabites is organized. 

The Sons of Temperance organize in New York. 

John B. Gough signs the pledge and reforms. 

The Congressional Temperance Society is reorganized 
on the basis of abstinence. 

1843 
A prohibitory law is passed for Oregon. 
The National Division of the Sons of Temperance 
organizes. 



118 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

1846 
The Democratic Legislature of Maine enacts a pro- 
hibitory law. 

The order of Templars of Honor and Temperance is 
organized. 

1847 
The Independent Order of Good Samaritans is or- 
ganized. 

1848 
The Methodist General Conference at Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania, forbids members buying, selling, or drink- 
ing intoxicating beverages. 

The prohibitory liquor law of Oregon is repealed. 

1849 

Father Mathew arrives from Ireland, and begins his 
pledge-signing crusade. President Tyler gives a banquet 
at the White House to Father Mathew and the Senate 
votes the extraordinary distinction of admitting him to 
the bar of the Senate. 

1850 

The people of Michigan adopt a constitutional amend- 
ment against license. 

1851 

The Dow bill Introduced by Neal Dow in the Maine 
Legislature becomes a law. The law provides for con- 
fiscation of liquors stored for sale. 

The Independent Order of Good Templars is organ- 
ized in central New York. 

Abraham Lincoln joins the Sons of Temperance at 
Springfield, Illinois. 

Horace Greeley declares for the destruction of the 
liquor traffic. 

1852 

The Massachusetts Legislature enacts the "Maine 
Law" in its most stringent form. 

Vermont adopts Prohibition. 



APPENDIX A 119 

1853 

The prohibitory law of Rhode Island is declared un- 
constitutional. 

John B. Gough makes a temperance lecture tour of 
England. 

1854 

Connecticut passes a prohibitory law with the pro- 
vision for town agents to sell liquors for sacramental, 
chemical, and medicinal uses. 

Myron H. Clark, a Whig, is elected governor of New 
York on a prohibition platform. 

1855 

The militia of Illinois Is called out in the city of 
Chicago to suppress a riot occasioned by the agitation of 
the license question. 

Pennsylvania prohibits the sale of liquors to be drunk 
on the premises. 

The prohibitory law of Maine is reenacted by the 
Legislature and its penalties increased. 

Another prohibitory law is passed in Rhode Island. 

1856 
The prohibitory Maine Law is repealed by the enact- 
ment of a license provision. 

1857 
The Sons of Temperance in New York indorse the 
scheme for a constitutional amendment prohibiting the 
liquor traffic. 

1858 
The Maine prohibitory Law again becomes operative. 

1860 
President-elect Abraham Lincoln declines a request 
to furnish liquors to the national committee sent to 
inform him of his nomination to the Presidency on 
June 19 ; he returns unopened the hampers of wines and 
liquors given to him. 



120 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

1861 

The New York Senate by a vote of 69 to 33 approves 
the joint resolution providing for a constitutional pro- 
hibitory amendment. 

President Lincoln signs an act of Congress forbidding 
the selling or giving of intoxicating drinks to soldiers. 

Generals Butler, McClellan, and Banks issue orders 
expelling all liquors from their respective commands. 

1862 
Congress passes a law declaring that the spirit ration 
in the navy shall cease forever. 

1865 
The Presbyterian General Assembly declares that 
liquor makers and sellers shall be excluded from mem- 
bership in the church. 

1866 
Kansas passes a local option and prohibitory law, 

1867 

The Congressional Temperance Society is revived by 
Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts. 

The National Brewers' Congress at Chicago declares 
for personal liberty, and against all candidates, of what- 
ever party, who are in any way disposed toward the 
total abstinence cause. 

1869 

Massachusetts enacts a State prohibitory law. 

The National Prohibition Party is organized in Chi- 
cago. 

1870 

Ohio passes the Adair law, making the liquor seller 
and owners of premises jointly responsible for injury 
caused by liquor. 

The Royal Templars of Temperance is organized at 
Buffalo, New York. 



APPENDIX A 121 

1872 

The Catholic Total Abstinence Union of North Amer- 
ica is organized. 

1873 

The Woman's Temperance Crusade begins in Hills- 
boro, Ohio. 

The Legislature of Minnesota enacts a special tax 
on saloon-keepers. 

The New York Legislature passes the landlord and 
tenant bill, and a civil damage bill for the regulation of 
the liquor trade. 

1874 

The Georgia Legislature prohibits the sale of liquors 
except on petition of two thirds of the property owners. 

Christian women at Chautauqua, New York, decide 
to call a national convention of temperance women, 
which convention meets on November 17 in Cleveland, 
Ohio. 

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is or- 
ganized November 19. 

1875 

The whisky frauds in Western States are exposed, 
showing a loss to the government by corruption of 
$1,650,000. 

The constitution of the State of Texas is changed bo 
as to guarantee local opeion. 

1876 
Senator Blair introduces a resolution in the United 
States Senate proposing federal prohibition. 

1879 
A constitutional prohibitory amendment bill passes 
the Kansas Legislature. 

1880 
The demand for scientific temperance instruction in 
schools is created by the W. C. T. U. 



122 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

The Iowa Legislature adopts a prohibitory amend- 
ment. 

The people of Kansas adopt the prohibitory constitu- 
tional amendment by 8,000 votes. 

1881 

President Hayes issues an order prohibiting the sale 
of liquors at military posts and stations. 

The first high-license law in the country is enacted 
by the Nebraska Legislature. 

Kansas passes a prohibitory law to enforce the Pro- 
hibition amendment. 

1882 

The prohibitory amendment is adopted by the people 
of Iowa by a majority of nearly 30,000 votes. 

1883 

The Missouri Legislature enacts the Downing high- 
license law. 

The Illinois Legislature passes the Harper high- 
license law. 

A petition containing the names of 50,000 voters in 
Massachusetts is presented to the Legislature of that 
State, asking for the submission of a prohibitory con- 
stitutional amendment. 

The people of Ohio adopt a prohibitory constitutional 
amendment by a majority of 82,000; the proposition is 
defeated by technicalities. 

The Scott law taxing the liquor traffic is passed in 
Ohio. 

1884 

The stringent Iowa prohibitory liquor law becomes 
operative. 

The National Democratic Convention adopts a liquor 
plank in its platform. 

The third plenary council of the Roman Catholic prel- 
ates at Baltimore, Maryland, declares against the liquor 
traffic. 



APPENDIX A 123 

The constitutional prohibitory amendment is ap- 
proved by the people of Maine by a majority of 46,972 
votes. 

The Church Temperance Society of New York reports 
that 633 political conventions and primaries out of a 
total of 1,002 are held in saloons and that the boodle 
board of 22 aldermen contains 12 saloon-keepers and 4 
saloon politicians. 

1885 

The proposed constitution for South Dakota is framed 
by a convention at Sioux Falls, with an article prohibit- 
ing the liquor traflBc. 

A partisan anti-saloon movement is organized in Kan- 
sas for the purpose of inducing the Republican party 
to adopt a platform of hostility to the saloons. 

1886 

The Rhode Island Legislature votes to submit the 
prohibitory amendment to a popular vote. The pro- 
hibitory amendment to the constitution is approved by 
the people of Rhode Island by the required three fifths 
and becomes operative on July 1. 

The Rev. George C. Haddock, of Sioux City, Iowa, Is 
murdered by a prominent friend of the brewers. 

Congress enacts that instruction concerning the ef- 
fects of alcoholic liquors shall be given in the schools of 
the District of Columbia, in the military and naval 
academies, and in all other schools under government 
control. 

Congress passes a local option law for the District of 
Columbia. 

The Dow tax law is passed by the Ohio Legislature. 

1887 

The General Conference of the Evangelical Church 
declares for Prohibition. 

The Legislature of Kansas passes a law to suppress the 
sale of liquor as a beverage at drug stores. 



124 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

The Minnesota Legislature provides for high license 
wherever Prohibition is not adopted. 

The Pennsylvania Legislature enacts the Brooks high- 
license law. 

The Texas Legislature votes to submit a constitutional 
prohibitory amendment to the people; the amendment 
is afterward defeated by a majority of 91,357. 

The General Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist 
Episcopal Church resolves for Prohibition. 

1888 

The General Conference of the African Methodist 
Episcopal Zion Church, with 300,000 members, declares 
in favor of temperance. 

The Brooks high-license law of Pennsylvania goes 
into effect. 

The National Republican Convention resolves for tem- 
perance and morality. 

The General Synod of the Moravian Church opposes 
all traflSc in intoxicating liquors. 

The General Conference of the Seventh Day Adventists 
in convention at Minneapolis, Minnesota, resolves for 
Prohibition. 

The Massachusetts Legislature enacts a high-license 
law. 

1889 

The Rhode Island Legislature enacts a high-license 
law. 

The people of South Dakota approve the prohibitory 
article of the constitution by a majority of over 5,000, 

1890 

President Corbin, of the Reading Railroad, orders 
the discharge of all employees who frequent drinking 
places. 

The Prohibition law of Iowa is sustained. 

The Central Labor Union of New York denies ad- 



APPENDIX A 125 

miBsion to the delegates from saloon-keepers' associa- 
tions. 

The Presbyterian General Assembly in session at 
Saratoga, New York, recommends Prohibition. 

The General Conference of the Methodist Protestant 
Church declares against license. 

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad issues a circular stat- 
ing that it will not employ men addicted to intemper- 
ance. 

The Farmers' Alliance and Knights of Labor in South 
Dakota unite to form an independent party favoring 
Prohibition. 

The American Board of Missions petitions Congress 
to prohibit the exportation of intoxicating liquors to 
those countries where the missions of the board are 
located. 

The Maryland Legislature enacts a high-license law 
for Baltimore City. 

1891 

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad dis- 
charges employees who sign petitions of saloon-keepers 
for license. 

The Maine Legislature passes some very rigid temper- 
ance legislation. 

1892 

The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church condemns the liquor traffic and the high-license 
system. 

Judge Lacombe, of New York, r^^nders an opinion 
favoring the legality of the whisky .rust. 

1893 

The Ohio Anti-Saloon League is founded by Howard 
H. Russell at Oberlin, Ohio. 

The State Liquor Dealers' Association of Ohio decides 
to enter politics more actively than before. 



126 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

1894 
Archbishop Ireland, of the Catholic Church, and Dr. 
Kynett, of the Methodist Church, on a railway train 
between Chicago and Philadelphia, discuss the tem- 
perance question and agree upon the advisability of a 
plan for the uniting of all the forces opposed to the 
saloon, similar to the plan later decided upon in the 
organization of the Anti-Saloon League of America. 

1895 

At the suggestion of Bishop Luther B. Wilson, the Dis- 
trict of Columbia Anti-Saloon League issues a call to 
initiate a general Anti-Saloon League movement through- 
out the nation. 

The American Anti-Saloon League is organized at 
Washington, D. C, December 18, by the coalition of the 
Anti-Saloon League of the District of Columbia, the 
Anti-Saloon League of Ohio and five other State, na- 
tional, and local temperance organizations. 

Dr. Howard H. Russell is chosen the first national 
superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of America. 

The American Issue, the official organ of the Anti- 
Saloon League, makes its first appearance, taking the 
place of the Anti-Saloon, the paper started by Dr. Rus- 
sell in 1893. 

1896 
State Anti-Saloon Leagues are organized in Pennsyl- 
vania, South Dakota, Michigan, West Virginia, and 
Iowa. 

1897 
The Anti-Saloon Leagues of Nebraska and Tennessee 
are inaugurated. 

1898 
The Anti-Saloon League movement is started in North- 
ern California, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Vermont, 
Wisconsin, Maryland, and Oklahoma. 



APPENDIX A 127 

1899 

Through action of the Ohio Anti-Saloon League, a 
large number of pro-liquor candidates are defeated. 

Anti-Saloon League State organizations are started 
in New Hampshire, New York, Colorado, Arkansas, and 
Rhode Island. 

The Anti-Saloon League of America opens legislative 
offices in Washington, D. C. 

1900 

The Anti-Saloon League is organized In the State of 
Washington. 

1901 

Congress passes the anti-canteen law. 

The brewers and liquor dealers organize in every 
Prohibition State of the Union to break down the pro- 
hibitory laws. 

The Anti-Saloon Leagues of Oregon, Virginia, and 
New Jersey are started. 

The Supreme Court of Indiana hands down three de- 
cisions favorable to the temperance forces. 

1902 

Maryland passes twenty-eight different local temper- 
ance laws. 

Two thirds of Los Angeles County, one half of San 
Diego County and one half of San Bernardino County,, 
California, adopt no-license. 

New York State outlaws 60 concert hall saloons in 
Buffalo, and adds 100 dry townships to the no-license 
column. 

1903 

Virginia passes the Mann law, practically banishing 
all saloons from rural districts. 

Eighteen of the 24 towns and cities voting in Virginia 
go dry and 20 of the 27 municipal elections in North 
Carolina result in dry victories. 

Fifty-seven additional towns and cities in Ohio adopt 



128 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

no-license under the Beal law, and 450 convictions of 
saloon violators are secured in the same State. 

1904 

Anti-Saloon Leagues are organized in Kentucky, 
Idaho, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory. 

Virginia reduces the number of saloons in that State 
by two hundred and thirty. 

The anti-saloon forces secure the election of a Pro- 
hibitionist as a member of the Illinois Legislature from 
the city of Peoria, the world's whisky center. 

Seven counties in Missouri vote dry and 200 saloons 
are closed in the State. 

1905 

Six anti-liquor laws are passed by the Legislature of 
New York. 

One hundred and sixty-three convictions against sa- 
loon-keepers are secured in Minnesota, and the saloons 
are closed on Sunday in Minneapolis. 

Governor Herrick, of Ohio, is defeated for re-election 
by a majority of over 44,000 by the anti-saloon forces, 
who thus resent his mutilation of the residence district 
option bill. 

1906 

Kentucky passes the county unit local option law, 
which results immediately in 14 new counties passing 
Into the no-license column. The governor orders the 
closing of Sunday saloons in Louisville. 

Six of the eleven New Hampshire cities vote dry. 

The Oklahoma Statehood bill as passed by Congress, 
requires the prohibition of the liquor traffic in Indian 
Territory, and on Indian reservations for twenty-one 
years, and thereafter until the people shall change the 
organic law. 

1907 

Alabama passes a county option law, and later enacts 
State-wide Prohibition. Jefferson County, Alabama, in- 



APPENDIX A 129 

eluding the city of Birmingham, votes dry by a majority 
of 1,800. 

Arkansas abolishes all saloons outside of incorporated 
towns. 

The Legislature of Georgia passes a State-wide Pro- 
hibition measure. 

The Delaware Legislature submits the liquor question 
to the vote of the people, with the result that every 
place outside of Newcastle County and the city of "Wil- 
mington abolishes the saloons. 

Of the 37 county option elections held in Kentucky, 
35 go dry. 

Ohio destroys 350 speakeasies, and 50 additional towns 
and cities go dry. 

Oklahoma adopts Prohibition by 18,000 majority. 

1908 

Illinois in a single day votes 1,053 townships dry, 
abolishing thereby over 1,500 saloons. 

Ten additional counties in Michigan abolish the sa- 
loons. 

Mississippi passes a State-wide Prohibition law. 

North Carolina adopts State-wide Prohibition by a 
majority of 44,000. 

Twenty-one of the 33 counties of Oregon vote to 
abolish the saloons under the county-option law. 

Forty-two municipalities in Colorado adopt no-license. 

Arkansas registers a total majority against licenses in 
the county option elections of 22,934, and elects an anti- 
saloon governor by 80,000 majority. 

Governor Stubbs is elected in Kansas on a Prohibition 
and law-enforcement issue. 

Texas adds 12 dry counties to the no-license list, and 
re-elects Governor Campbell on a straight anti-saloon 
issue. 

Rhode Island abolishes 429 saloons, and passes a law 
limiting the number of licenses to one to every 500 



130 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

of the population, and prohibiting the saloon within 200 
feet of a public or parochial school. 

Tennessee elects a Legislature pledged to enact State 
Prohibition. 

United States Senator Carmack is shot down in the 
streets of Nashville, and dies a martyr to the Prohibition 
cause. 

Maine and North Dakota both elect governors pledged 
to the strict enforcement of Prohibition. 

Baltimore, Maryland, closes 393 saloons. 

Worcestei-, Massachusetts, with a population of 150,000, 
goes dry a second time. 

Four hundred and sixty-one saloons are abolished in 
Iowa. 

Seven hundred and twenty saloons go out of business 
in Indiana by the remonstrance route. 

In four months 57 counties in Ohio vote dry, abolish- 
ing thereby 1,910 saloons. 

More than 11,000 saloons are abolished in the United 
States by Prohibition and local option laws during the 
year. 

1909 

South Carolina adopts Prohibition with a referendum 
by counties, and as a result of the referendum vote 36 
of the 42 counties prohibit the sale, while the other 6 
retain the county dispensaries. 

Idaho enacts a straight county-option measure, and 
in the first round of elections 14 of the 23 counties 
abolish saloons. 

Wyoming abolishes all saloons outside of incorporated 
towns. 

Kansas passes a stringent measure prohibiting the 
sale of liquors for all purposes except sacramental 
use. 

Nineteen additional counties in Michigan abolish the 
saloons. 

The lower house of the West Virginia Legislature 



APPENDIX A 131 

passes a Prohibition bill. Eight additional counties in 
West Virginia vote dry. 

Sixty counties in Indiana vote dry. 

1910 

The governor of Nebraska summons the mayor, fire, 
and police board, and the chief of police, to show cause 
why they should not be ousted from office, for failure to 
enforce anti-liquor laws; and upon agreement of said 
officers to enforce the laws in the future, they are given 
opportunity to make good. 

The largest number of no-license elections ever held in 
the State take place in Wisconsin, resulting in a net 
gain of about 25 counties for the dry forces. 

Carl Etherington, a special officer, who is compelled, 
in self-defense, to shoot a speakeasy keeper as a re- 
sult of a raid in Newark, Ohio, is lynched by a drunken 
mob on the public square of Newark. 

Hon. William Jennings Bryan makes a fight in the 
Democratic convention for a county-option plank. 

The anti-liquor forces of Tennessee score a great vic- 
tory in the election of Governor Hooper and a majority 
of the Legislature favorable to the prohibitory law. 

1911 

The Illinois liquor interests are overwhelmingly de- 
feated in their attempt to repeal the township local 
option law of that State. 

Forty-six dry counties in Indiana go wet on account of 
the repeal of the county-option law, leaving only 24 dry 
counties out of 92 in the State and reducing the number 
of dry townships to 825 out of a total of 1,015. 

Every candidate on the State ticket in Kentucky who 
is supported by the liquor interests where the temper- 
ance question is involved, is defeated for nomination. 

Five out of 68 legislative bills favorable to the liquor 
traffic are passed by the General Assembly of New 
York State. 



132 LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 

1912 

The Prohibition forces of Georgia elect a Legislature 
favorable to Prohibition. 

Under a special law enacted by the Michigan Legisla- 
ture, providing that there shall not be more than one 
saloon to every 500 of the population, about 200 upper 
peninsula saloons are closed on May 1. 

The Supreme Court of the United States hands down 
a decision upholding federal Prohibition in Indian Ter- 
ritory and certain portions of Indian counties in Okla- 
homa. 

The United States Supreme Court hands down a de- 
cision upholding the constitutionality of the twenty-one 
year Prohibition clause for that portion of the new 
State of Oklahoma which was originally Indian Ter- 
ritory. 

The Supreme Court of Tennessee upholds the law of 
that State prohibiting the manufacture of Intoxicating 
liquors. 

The people of West Virginia on November 5 adopt a 
constitutional amendment prohibiting the liquor traffic 
by a majority of 92,342 out of a total vote of 235,843, 
the law to become effective July 1, 1914. 
1913 

The United States Congress passes the Webb-Kenyon 
law over the veto of President William H. Taft, thus 
prohibiting the shipment in interstate commerce of 
intoxicating liquors when such liquors are to be used 
in violation of law. 

The Jones-Works bill restricting the liquor traffic 
in the District of Columbia is passed by Congress in the 
face of terrific opposition, thus providing for the reduc- 
tion of the number of saloons to not more than 300 by 
November 1, 1914. 

Of the 28 local option elections held in Illinois on 
November 4, 22 result in dry victories, the women's 
vote strongly aiding the victors. 



APPENDIX A 133 

The enfranchisement of women In Kansas is esti- 
mated to have added 300,000 voters to the temperance 
army. 

In sixteen local option elections in Missouri, between 
January and October, the population in dry territory 
is increased by 143,282, and the number of dry counties 
is increased to 74. 

An extra session of the Tennessee Legislature is called 
by Governor Hooper to pass the nuisance bill and the 
anti-shipping bill. 

The State Supreme Court of Wyoming upholds the 
constitutionality of the Sunday-closing law. 
1914 

The people of Arizona, by a majority of 3,144 cut of 
a total vote of less than 50,000, adopt a prohibitory con- 
stitutional amendment which goes into effect January 
1, 1915. 

At the November election in Colorado the Prohibition 
amendment to the State constitution submitted to a 
vote of the people was adopted by a majority of 11,752. 
The amendment goes into effect January 1, 1916. 

Oregon adopts State-wide Prohibition by a majority 
of 36,000, the Prohibition vote being 136,842 and the 
license vote being 100,362. As a result of this law, which 
went into effect January 1, 1916, 900 saloons and 18 
breweries in 98 towns were closed. Thirty-two of the 
34 counties in the State record Prohibition majorities. 

The bill for an election on State-wide Prohibition 
which had failed in several previous Legislatures in 
Virginia is adopted by the Virginia House of Delegates 
by an overwhelming vote in the 1914 session and in the 
Senate by the casting of the deciding vote on a tie by 
the president of that body. 

A Prohibition amendment to the constitution of the 
State of Washington which is voted upon in the Novem- 
ber elections, is adopted by a majority of 18,632 out of 
a total of 361,048 votes. 



134 LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 

The election of Senator Lawrence Y. Sherman to the 
United States Senate from Illinois, in face of the ter- 
rific opposition of the liquor forces, records another sig- 
nificant dry victory. 

A strong anti-shipping law and a search-and-seizure 
law are enacted by the Kentucky Legislature. 

On December 22 the Hobson resolution providing for 
the submission of a prohibitory amendment to the 
federal Constitution is voted upon in Congress, 193 
votes being recorded in favor of the measure and 189 
votes against it. 

1915 

The Legislature of Alabama by an overwhelming ma- 
jority passes a State-wide prohibitory law which is 
vetoed by the governor and then passed by the Legisla- 
ture over the governor's veto. 

By a majority of 75 to 24 in the House and 33 to 2 
in the Senate, the Arkansas Legislature adopts a State- 
wide Prohibition law. 

The State-wide prohibitory law goes into effect in 
Arizona January 1. 

Statutory Prohibition goes into effect in Alabama July 
1, 1915. Liquor advertisements in newspapers, on bill- 
boards, or in any other form, are prohibited within the 
State. 

The Colorado Legislature passes a stringent law pro- 
viding for the enforcement of the State Prohibition 
amendment, which goes into effect January 1, 1916. 

A special session of the Georgia Legislature is called 
and enacts a law to secure effective enforcement of 
Prohibition. 

The 1915 session of the Utah Legislature enacts a 
strong Prohibition bill, with only 5 votes against the 
measure in the House of Representatives and 2 in the 
Senate. Governor Spry, however, holds the bill until 
after the Legislature has adjourned, and then attaches 
his veto to the measure. 



APPENDIX A 185 

A joint resolution calling for the submission of a pro- 
hibitory amendment to the federal constitution was in- 
troduced in both houses of the Sixty-fourth Congress, 
which convened in December. The resolutions were 
presented in the Senate by Senator Morris Sheppard, of 
Texas, and by Senator J. H. Gallinger, of New Hamp- 
shire; in the House by Edwin Y. Webb, of North Caro- 
lina, and A. T. Smith, of Idaho. 

1916 

The Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate, 
by a vote of 13 to 3, on December 21 favorably reports to 
the United States Senate the National Prohibition Reso- 
lution known as Senate Joint Resolution No. 55. 

Prohibition goes into effect in Arkansas, Colorado, 
Idaho, Iowa, and Washington, on January 1, 1916. 

Michigan adopts a prohibitory amendment to the 
State constitution by a vote of 353,378 to 284,754, on 
November 7. 

Montana adopts State-wide Prohibition by a vote of 
102,776 to 73,890, at the general election in November. 

Constitutional Prohibition is adopted in Nebraska by 
a vote of 146,574 to 117,132, at the November election. A 
prohibitory statute is also passed by the Legislature. 

South Dakota adopts constitutional Prohibition by a 
majority of 11,505 votes, on November 7. 

State-wide Prohibition goes into effect in Virginia on 
November 1. A stringent law-enforcement measure is 
passed by the State Legislature. 

1917 

The resolution submitting to the States the National 
Prohibition Amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States, is adopted by the United States Senate 
on August 1, and by the House of Representatives on 
December 18. 

The federal Anti-Liquor Advertising bill, carrying 
with It the Reed Bone-Dry Amendment, is adopted by 



136 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

the United States Senate on February 15 and. by the 
House of Representatives on February 21. 

The Supreme Court of the United States, on January 
8, 1917, hands down a decision upholding the constitu- 
tionality of the Webb-Kenyon Interstate Liquor Ship- 
ment Law. 

The District of Columbia is made Prohibition terri- 
tory by a bill passed by the United States Senate on 
January 9, and by the House of Representatives on Feb- 
ruary 28. 

A bill providing for Prohibition in the territory of 
Alaska is presented in both houses of the United States 
Congress early in January, 1917, and is adopted by the 
Senate on January 31, and by the House of Representa- 
tives on February 2. The Prohibition measure goes into 
effect January 1, 1918. 

A provision for a vote on the question of Prohibition 
in the island of Porto Rico is passed by the United 
States Congress, as an amendment to the Porto Rican 
Citizenship and Civil Government bill. At a special 
election held in July, 1917, the voters of Porto Rico ap- 
prove the Prohibition measure by a vote of 99,775 to 
61,295. 

A Food Control bill is passed by the House of Repre- 
sentatives, containing a provision forbidding the use of 
any foods, food materials, or feeds for the production of 
alcoholic beverages, except for governmental, industrial, 
scientific, medicinal, or sacramental purposes, and also 
authorizing the President of the United States to com- 
mandeer alcohol and distilled spirits for government 
requirements. As a result of a threatened filibuster 
against this food-control bill by the friends of the liquor 
interests in the United States Senate, a request is made 
by the President of the United States to the anti-liquor 
forces, in accordance with which the bill is finally 
changed so as to make the prohibition of the use 
of food materials in the manufacture of beer and 



APPENDIX A 137 

wine, optional with the President of the United States. 
The bill as finally passed by the Senate on August 8 
and signed by the President on August 10, provided 
for the prohibition of the manufacture of distilled 
spirits for beverage purposes, prohibition of the impor- 
tation of distilled spirits, and authorized the President 
to commandeer whisky in stock as well as in bond, at 
his discretion, to reduce the alcoholic content of beer 
and wine, and to limit, regulate or prohibit the use of 
food materials in the manufacture of beer and wine. 
According to the terms of this measure, the manufacture 
of distilled spirits in the United States ceased on Sep- 
tember 8, 1917. 

Georgia passes a bone-dry prohibitory law, barring 
even the possession of liquor for personal use, effective 
immediately upon its passage. 

The General Assembly of Indiana passes a State-wide 
prohibitory statute, to go into effect April 2, 1918. 

Constitutional Prohibition goes into effect in Nebraska 
May 1. 

New Hampshire adopts State-wide Prohibition, by 
act of the State Legislature, in April, 1917. 

The New York Legislature passes a city local option 
bill, which enfranchises more than 8,000,000 people liv- 
ing in the cities of the State. 

The North Dakota Legislature passes a bone-dry law 
which is signed by the governor on March 9. 

Oklahoma adopts a bone-dry law at the 1917 session 
of the Legislature. 

State-wide Prohibition goes into effect in South Da- 
kota on July 1. 

Statutory Prohibition was adopted by the Utah Legis- 
lature, the bill being signed by the governor on Febru- 
ary 8, and becoming effective August 1. 

The Washington Legislature passes a State bone-dry 
law. 

The Wyoming Legislature adopts a resolution submit- 



138 LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 

ting State-wide constitutional Prohibition to a vote of 
the people. 

1918 

The National Prohibition Amendment to the Consti- 
tution of the United States is ratified by the Legisla- 
tures of the following States: Mississippi, Virginia, 
Kentucky, South Carolina, North Dakota, Maryland, 
Montana, Texas, Delaware, South Dakota, Massachu- 
setts, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida. 

Prohibition goes into effect in Alaska on January 1, 
1918. 

An amendment to the Agricultural Appropriation bill 
is offered in the United States House of Representatives, 
by Congressman Randall, providing that no part of this 
appropriation shall be available unless the use of grains 
in the manufacture of beer be prohibited. An amend- 
ment to this bill is offered in the Senate by Senator 
Jones, to prohibit the use of cereals and fruit in the 
manufacture of intoxicants. The Agricultural Appro- 
priation bill is passed by the Senate on September 6, 
with a Prohibition amendment, and approved by the 
President on November 21. The law as finally approved 
prohibits the manufacture of beer and wine, after May 
1, 1919, and forbids the sale of distilled, malt, and vinous 
intoxicants after June 30, 1919. 

On December 1, 1918, the use of foods and food ma- 
terials in the manufacture of beer was ordered stopped 
by the food administration of the federal government. 

Florida adopts State-wide Prohibition by a majority 
of 8,242 at the November election. 

At a special session of the Louisiana Legislature called 
in August the National Prohibition Amendment is ratified. 

State-wide Prohibition goes into effect in Michigan on 
May 1. 

State-wide Prohibition goes into effect in Montana on 
December 31, in New Hampshire May 1, and in New 
Mexico October 1. 



APPENDIX A 139 

State-wide Prohibition is adopted in Nevada at the 
November election, and goes into effect on December 16. 

Ohio adopts State-wide Prohibition by a majority of 
25,759. 

Prohibition goes into effect in Porto Rico on March 2. 

Utah adopts a prohibitory amendment to the State 
constitution at the November election. 

A bone-dry amendment to the constitution of Wash- 
ington is adopted by a majority of 41,778 votes, at the 
November election. 

State-wide Prohibition is adopted at the general elec- 
tion in Wyoming, by 15,000 majority. 

1919 

The amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States, providing for National Prohibition, is ratified 
by the Legislatures of three fourths of the States, on 
January 16, 1919, and becomes the Eighteenth Amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United States. The Act- 
ing Secretary of State issues a proclamation on January 
29, declaring this amendment a valid part of the Con- 
stitution of the United States. During the early part 
of the year 1919 the amendment is ratified by the fol- 
lowing State Legislatures: Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, 
Maine, Idaho, West Virginia, Washington, Tennessee, 
California, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, North Carolina, 
Alabama, Kansas, Oregon, Iowa, Utah, Colorado, New 
Hampshire, Nebraska, Missouri, Wyoming, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, Vermont, New York, 
and Pennsylvania. 

A resolution providing for ratification of the Na- 
tional Prohibition Amendment is defeated in the New 
Jersey Senate by a vote of 10 to 8, on March 10. 

The Senate of Rhode Island votes to indefinitely post- 
pone consideration of the National Prohibition Amend- 
ment to the United States Constitution, by a vote of 25 
to 12, on February 6. 



APPENDIX B 

GENERAL McDOUGALL'S INDORSEMENT OF 
JAMES B. MERWIN 

New York City, Jan. 8, 1863. 
Hon. J. Harlan 

U. S. Senate. 

Dear Sir: I avail myself of your kindness to me 
heretofore to write you a line by our mutual friend the 
Rev. Mr. Merwin. Mr. Merwin has been my invaluable 
cooperator in the good work in the Department of New 
York and it is not necessary to tell you what a worker 
he is. His services are known to the whole Army. He 
will inform you what we have done and are doing here 
and what we want. 

I must beg you to mention me very kindly to your 
good lady and say to her that I still hear of her wher- 
ever I hear of sick and wounded soldiers. 

Accept of my wishes for continued health and happi- 
ness to yourself. 

Very respectfully 

Your friend and servant, 

C. MCDOUGALL, 

Medical Director 

Dept. of the East, 

U. S. A. 



140 



APPENDIX C 

THE 1855 PROHIBITION BATTLE IN ILLINOIS 
HISTORY 

Local historians and Illinois newspapers gave a good 
deal of space to the Illinois temperance wave of 1855. 
The temperance people had elected a Whig-Prohibition 
governor in New York, and the Dow Law was a leading 
topic of discussion all over the country. The Illinois 
Legislature in the early winter of 1855 passed a strin- 
gent Prohibition Act, inhibiting the sale and manufac- 
ture of spirituous, vinous or malt liquors under heavy 
penalties, together with the destruction of liquors. The 
law contained certain exceptions in favor of the making 
of cider, wines, and beer and ale for export. Importers 
were allowed to sell in the original packages only. Be- 
fore becoming effective the Act provided that it should 
be submitted to a referendum vote at a special election 
to be held in June, 1855. 

In 1851 a stringent act known as the "Quart Law" had 
been adopted, but the enforcement of this law produced 
great popular resentment, and it was repealed in 1853. 
This reverse did not discourage the friends of temper- 
ance. They held a State convention in Springfield in 
January, 1854, attended by delegates to the number of 
200 from all parts of the State. The leading partici- 
pants were S. D. Lockwood, formerly supreme judge, 
the Rev. J. M. Peck, D.D., B. S. Edwards, S. W. Robins, 
Thomas M. Taylor, G. P. West, W. C. Vanmeter, Judge 
Grover, and others. The use of the Hall of Representa- 
tives was denied the temperance people after a pro- 
tracted debate in the House by a vote of 33 to 36. This 

141 



142 LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 

convention drafted a bill similar in its provisions to 
the Maine Law, which was presented to the General 
Assembly for adoption, and defeated, some of the strong- 
est members believing that moral suasion was the 
proper solution of the drink problem. At the special 
session in February, 1854, the friends of temperance 
again assembled at Springfield. The attendance was 
chiefly from the northern part of the State. The pro- 
hibitory bill was again introduced in the Legislature, 
and this time favorably reported upon by the Commit- 
tee on Temperance. J. M. Palmer moved the submission 
clause as an amendment, but for want of time no final 
action was taken. 

The constitutionality of the law was challenged, but 
at the June term of the Supreme Court, in the case of 
Jacksonville v. Godard, it was clarified. Jacksonville 
by ordinance had declared the sale of liquors a nuisance. 
It was contended by the defendant that liquor was 
property, and that its acquirement and disposition was 
natural and constitutional and could not be invaded on 
the authority of the State; that it might be regulated 
but could not be destroyed. The court held that this 
doctrine as a universal principle was not tenable; it 
depended upon the kind of property, its use and dis- 
posal. The court held that both natural and social 
rights in a political state were surrendered to the well- 
being of society. These police powers destroyed neither 
Magna Charta nor the spirit of the Constitution; the 
act and the thing with its use must be judged by its 
effects, and when adjudged mischievous the power of 
the government must regulate them. We had a right to 
our gold and silver, yet could not coin it. We might 
labor and rest, yet were not allowed to become idlers, 
vagrants, or vagabonds. We might dispose of property, 
yet had no right to gamble it away. And to reach the 
effect we might remove the cause. Judge Scates de- 
livered the opinion of the court. 



APPENDIX 143 

The Prohibition Bill, framed on the lines of the Maine 
Law, came before the Legislature in 1855. That body 
was Republican, or, rather, "Fusion" by a combination 
of Whigs and anti-Nebraska Democrats. The bill, after 
being amended by the Senate, passed both Houses and 
under the submission clause went to the people for 
final approval. 

B. S. Edwards, a lawyer of ability and high standing, 
took a leading part in the contest for the adoption of 
the Prohibition law. He was credited by many at the 
time with being the framer of the bill. Generally 
speaking, the northern counties of the State were for 
the measure. The politicians rather generally held 
aloof from the discussion or the propaganda. The liquor 
people circulated garbled copies, with forged interpo- 
lations forbidding the manufacture and sale of cider 
among the farmers of the State. Its opponents argued 
that its adoption would mean that liberty would be 
crushed. The bill was defeated in June by a State-wide 
majority of about 14,000 votes. The northern counties, 
with the exception of Cook and Rock Island, approved 
the bill. 

Maine Law Riot in Chicago 

Section 36 of the Prohibitory Bill provided that "All 
laws authorizing the granting of licenses to sell spirit- 
uous, intoxicating or mixed liquors shall be repealed 
from and after the date of the passage of this Act," 
February 12. Section 39 read, "The provisions of this 
Act shall take effect on the first Monday of July next," 
provided that if a majority of the ballots to be de- 
posited were against Prohibition, then the Act was to 
be of no force nor effect whatever. In March the City 
Council of Chicago required all persons selling liquor 
to take out licenses at the rate of $300 a year. Many of 
the saloon-keepers were German. Acting under legal 
advice as to the construction of the State prohibitory 



144 LINCOLN AND PEOHTBITION 

law that the city had no legal authority to issue li- 
censes from Februapy to July, and that every person 
choosing so to do had the right to sell liquor within 
that period according to Section 36, many liquor dealers 
refused to comply with the requirements of the City 
Council, and continued to sell liquor. Warrants were 
issued, and some thirty German saloon-keepers were ar- 
rested. They were tried before Judge Rucker. On the 
day of the trial the Germans thronged the courtroom 
until it was impossible to proceed. The police cleared 
the room, and the crowd retired to an adjoining room, 
from which, on account of their noise, they were also 
excluded. With the beating of drums the crowd now 
took possession of Randolph Street, excluded the passing 
pedestrian, and "armed with bludgeons, knives, and pis- 
tols speedily developed into a mob, insulting everyone 
coming within range and bidding defiance to the police. 
The latter attempted to open the sidewalk by force and 
a general battle ensued, resulting in the death of two 
policemen, as many Germans, and the serious wounding 
of a great number. The streets were cleared and order 
reestablished by the aid of the military; fifty-three Ger- 
mans were arrested and lodged in jail. It was a day of 
outraged law, disgrace, and blood for Chicago. On the 
next day [Sunday] the city was put under martial law." 



APPENDIX D 
MERWIN'S STATEMENT TO THE WRITER 

The following statement was dictated by James B. 
Merwin to Charles T. White in Brooklyn, New York, 
March 31, 1917: 

In addition to the facts set forth In the printed Pro- 
ceedings of the Sixteenth National Convention of the 
Anti-Saloon League of America at Atlantic City, July 
6-9, 1915, at which time I was interrogated at length 
with reference to my association with Abraham Lincoln, 
both in 1855 and during the entire period of the Civil 
War, I desire to place on record a memorandum about 
a document in my possession which I always have re- 
garded as of great interest and value to the cause of 
temperance reform. This document is dilapidated from 
wear, because I carried it about with me for the four 
years of the war, and it has had a great deal of wear and 
tear since. It bears the written indorsements of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, General Winfield Scott, and General Ben- 
jamin P. Butler, and the signatures of Senator Charles 
Sumner, of Massachusetts; Governor Buckingham, of 
Connecticut; O. H. Browning, of Illinois; Richard Yates, 
of Illinois; Senator Jamea Harlan, of Iowa; Senator 
Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts; Senator Lyman Trum- 
bull, of Illinois; Senator J. R. Doolittle. Senator James 
W. Grimes, Senator Timothy O. Howe; David Wilmot, 
author of the famous Wilmot Proviso; Judge Isaac 
N. Arnold, who served in Congress with Lincoln, and 
wrote a life of him; Congressman John F. Potter; John 
Lane Scripps, editor of the Chicago Tribune; Judge 
Thomas Drummond, and scores of others, including 
men prominent in Congress and in the Senate. This 

145 



146 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

document in its original content was a petition v/ritten 
at the suggestion of Abraham Lincoln soon after his 
first inauguration, by Governor Buckingham of Con- 
necticut, a friend of mine, asking the President officially 
to appoint or designate me as a major of volunteers to 
urge total abstinence among the soldiers in and around 
Washington, in the hospitals and camps, wherever I 
might find opportunity. 

Lincoln in 1855 was a poor country lawyer, and his 
practice, while considerable, was anything but lucrative. 
Stenographers were a rarity in Illinois at that time. 
It would have been surprising if any record of a tem- 
perance address in 1855 was made. 

It may be well for me to sketch here my association 
with Lincoln and the incidents leading up to it. After 
temperance campaign work in the State of Connecticut, 
on the solicitation of friends in Illinois, who wanted a 
law for Illinois like the Dow Lav/ in Maine, I went to 
Springfield in the early winter of 1854. There was a 
temperance meeting in progress in the old State House 
the night I arrived. I went to it. After a number of 
addresses, there were calls for "Abe Lincoln!" from 
various parts of the assembly room. These were re- 
peated until finally some one went out and summoned 
him. He had been reading law in the State Library. 
When he entered the Assembly Room he wore an ab- 
surd-looking coat, with sleeves too short for him by 
nearly a foot. In his hurried response to the call, he 
had picked up the janitor's coat, and put it on while 
walking through the corridor on his way to the Assem- 
bly Chamber. There was a titter at his appearance, but 
it stopped as soon as he began to talk. No one ever had 
occasion to laugh at Abraham Lincoln when he was 
speaking from the heart. He made a most wonderful tem- 
perance address, far more powerful than that made by 
him in Springfield on February 22, 1842, and quoted 
in the histories. 



APPENDIX D 147 

After the meeting I introduced myself to him, told him 
my mission to Springfield, and we went to his home to- 
gether. I had with me a copy of the Maine Law, and 
we sat up all night looking over that statute. I was 
a young man of about twenty-six then, and Lincoln 
was about forty-five. 

That was the beginning of the campaign for the 
adoption of a prohibition law for the State of Illinois. 
Mr. Lincoln set to work to frame a law, and he worked 
at it almost constantly for days. After he had completed 
it he had me take it around the State to get the views of 
his lawyer friends and of those most interested. I 
showed it to John M. Palmer, Leonard Swett, Jesse 
Fell, and others. I went to the home of Judge David 
Davis, and asked him to pass judgment on it. Lincoln 
had told me, half humorously, that Judge Davis's wife 
was a former Yankee schoolmarm, and for that reason 
he thought the Judge might be interested in the law. 
Davis was busy, and surly, and asked me if Mr. Lincoln 
had sent a retainer along to pay for the work. I was 
obliged to tell him he had not. "When I reported this 
back to Mr. Lincoln he seemed deeply hurt, as he had 
assumed that Judge Davis, on account of their long-time 
friendship, would be interested in it. He spoke to me 
about the incident just before he, as President, appointed 
Judge Davis to the United States Supreme Court bench. 

President Lincoln all of his life from young manhood 
on, was a total abstainer from alcoholic drink. In 1855 
he made more than a score of addresses in the campaign 
waged under the direction of the Illinois State Maine 
Law Alliance that year for State-wide prohibition of 
the liquor traffic, the issue before the people being on 
the proposed adoption of a prohibition amendment to 
the State constitution. Lincoln was heart and soul in 
favor of it. The temperance people came within four- 
teen thousand votes of carrying the amendment. Thou- 
sands of fraudulent votes were run into the State from 



148 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

Kentucky, Missouri, and Wisconsin by the liquor men. 
I was with. Lincoln practically every day during that 
campaign. He spoke with tremendous eloquence and 
power. So far as I know not one of his addresses in that 
campaign was preserved. The cause was not popular 
with the newspapers. In nearly every instance the 
addresses were delivered in the open air, generally from 
courthouse steps. 

At the breaking out of the war I was in Detroit, en- 
gaged in temperance work. Lincoln sent for me and I 
went to Washington. He outlined what he wanted. The 
soldiers were the victims, especially following pay days, 
of the rumsellers. My work, by mutual agreement, was 
to mitigate as far as practicable, the curse of whisky 
among the soldiers. In order to give me an official 
standing the document already referred to was, on the 
suggestion of the President, drawn up by Governor 
Buckingham and widely signed by some of the greatest 
men of the nation — by men close to the President. The 
indorsements by Generals Scott and Butler tell their 
own story. The indorsement by Lincoln is guarded in 
its tone because, I presume, as commander-in-chief of 
the Union army he wished to avoid embarrassing the 
service by establishing a precedent that might possibly 
prove troublesome. But my task was, as I have stated, 
talking total abstinence to the soldiers, and that is 
what Lincoln wanted me to do. 

That was my task during the entire period of the war. 
Part of the time, on account of lameness, I rode about 
in and spoke from the President's carriage. Whenever 
I landed in Washington I slept in a small room on the 
top floor of the White House. Of my intercourse with 
President Lincoln I have spoken and written much. My 
purpose in making this statement is not so much to 
give a reminiscence of Lincoln as to place on record 
evidence concerning the dilapidated old document which 
served, sometimes against the severest opposition, as a 



To nil trhoin it mnij concirn : 



UnOlV) lie, 1%<I Ihr 



%n\ (Quarters Citn^i^itaril, 



'ii;^; 



James B. Merwin's Pass for Himself and Driver 



APPENDIX D 149 

guarantee of my position. I had another pass, written 
and signed by President Lincoln, which I still have in 
my possession, and this carried me everywhere. The 
old document about which I am commenting, was "lost" 
almost as soon as I began to use it. I left it with the 
War Department in the summer of 1861 on the request 
of department officials, and when I tried to get it back 
it was "missing." I told the President. He sent a 
peremptory order to Secretary Cameron, ordering the 
production of the lost paper. It was almost instantly 
"found" and returned to me. 
Brooklyn, New York, March 31, 1917. 



APPENDIX E 

BANKER A. J. BABER CONFIRMS MERWIN 

The following letter confirms the oft-repeated asser- 
tion by James B. Merwin that Lincoln took part in the 
prohibition campaign in Illinois in the summer of 1855. 
The writer of the letter, A. J. Baber, for many years was 
president of a bank in his home town of Paris, Illinois, 
and was not a total abstainer. His contribution, sent 
to John G. Woolley, apparently was wholly in the inter- 
est of truth. The letter follows. 

January 24, 1914. 
Mr. John G. Woolley, 

Madison, Wis. 
Dear Sir: 

I have promised to write you a few lines In regard 
to Mr. Lincoln being a temperance man. I know he 
was a full-fledged temperance man, but as to being a 
Prohibitionist, I have forgotten whether he was really a 
Prohibitionist, but I know he was an ardent temperance 
man. I saw him many times when he would come to 
Edgar County to attend court. In early days the law- 
yers would follow the circuit. The judge would have 
several counties to hold court in, and the lawyers would 
start in with the judge and all go together, and this 
was called the circuit, and Lincoln would follow the 
circuit; this brought him to Paris twice a year for quite 
a number of years. And, as Lincoln was an ingenious 
talker and a fine story-teller, I would frequently wedge 
in to hear the stories, and whenever the question of 
liquor would come up, the lawyers would all talk, and 
most of them would go to the saloon and take a drink, 
but Lincoln always refused. 

150 



APPENDIX E 151 

I wish to call your attention to the election held in 
this State in 1855 on the prohibition question. The 
Legislature passed a bill during the session of 1854 and 
1855 to submit the question to a vote of the people. 
The election was to be held on the fourth of June, 1855. 
That was in the early settling of the prairie land of our 
country, when the chills came every year, and also 
rattlesnakes were bad in the prairie, and we were taught 
to get a gallon jug of liquor and put a certain amount 
of roots and herbs in it. It would keep the chills away, 
and also cure snakebite, and the consequence was that 
nearly everybody kept a jug in the house, and occasion- 
ally got it refilled. 

Well, the people nearly all became orators, some taking 
one side and some the other. Meetings were held at 
the schoolhouses and meetinghouses and at the cross- 
roads. It seemed like nearly everybody could talk some, 
and so it went on. Politics never entered the question 
until Stephen A. Douglas came out in a great speech in 
the northwestern part of the State and told the people 
to bury "Maine Lawism" and "Abolitionism" all in the 
same grave. Then the Democrats knew what to do. 
They went in with a whoop against Prohibition, while 
the Whigs and Republicans were mostly for Prohibition. 

I don't know how often Mr. Lincoln spoke, but I will 
call your attention to one time. While at court session 
in 1855 my business called me to Paris, and I saw Lin- 
coln and Ficklin, Linder and Judge Harlan, sitting in 
the shade of the Paris House, and I went to where they 
were. Becoming acquainted with all of them, they in- 
vited me to sit down. I did so, and very soon Lincoln 
spoke up and said that Col. Baldwin had invited him 
to come to his place and make a temperance speech, 
and it was about time he was going. Linder and Fick- 
lin opposed his going — rather made sport of him — but 
Harlan said: "Let him go. He will prove to the people 
that they have some rights besides what is in a jug." 



152 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

Baldwin was to come after Lincoln, but didn't come 
in time, and Lincoln started afoot and walked to the 
place of speaking, six miles out. Lincoln expected to 
meet Baldwin coming, but Baldwin came another road 
and he missed him. It was a hot day and Lincoln wore 
a long linen duster, and made the trip just to make a 
temperance speech — walked six miles on a hot day. 

Well, I am getting this story too long. I must close. 
The election was held and our county (Edgar) voted 
against Prohibition. 

The vote stood: For Prohibition, 810; against Pro- 
hibition, 1,331. 

The vote in the State was: For Prohibition, 79,010; 
against Prohibition, 93,102; defeated by 14,092. 

While I have forgotten just how Mr. Lincoln stood, 
I believe he was for Prohibition at that time, but he 
didn't want to see it made a party question so as to 
break up the Republican Party that was just forming 
and coming to the front. 

Now, Mr. Woolley, I fear I have stretched this little 
story probably too long. You may not have time to read 
it; have written it in a great hurry at night, and had 
a poor light, so will close. I trust you are well and all 
right. I am eighty-two years old and making a hand. 
I would like to hear from you occasionally. 
Very truly yours, 

A. J. Babeb, 
Paris, 111., January 14, 1914. 

P. S. I will say here, in 1855 under good old Demo- 
cratic times, you could buy whisky for 25c per gallon, 
good whisky at that. 



APPENDIX F 
MERWIN'S LETTER TO DR. BLAKESLEE 

Db. F. D. Blakeslee, of Binghamton, Anti-Saloon 
League District Superintendent, wrote J. B. Merwin 
concerning Lincoln's temperance principles, and in his 
letter remarked that the number of persons now living 
who saw Abraham Lincoln later than Major Merwin did 
must be few, but that he (Dr. B.) was among the few, 
having seen and saluted Lincoln at the Washington 
Navy Yard between five and six o'clock the day he was 
assassinated. To this Chaplain Merwin replied as fol- 
lows: 

MiDDLEFiELD, CoNN., July 5, 1910. 
My Dear Dr. Blakeslee: 

I read your letter of June 30th with interest and 
pJeasure. 

My last interview with the great and good Lincoln 
is a long story. I knew him from 1854 on to the day 
he was assassinated. Dined with him that day. 

The Cabinet meeting ended early, a little before 12 
o'clock. I left him after dinner about 2:30 for New 
York on a special mission to see Horace Greeley and 
submit to him a paper Mr. Lincoln had written on using 
the colored troops for digging the Panama Canal. 

Lee had surrendered. Jefferson Davis was a fugitive. 
The great heart of President Lincoln was burdened with 
the problem as how best to dispose of the 180,000 colored 
troops with arms in their hands. Major General Ben 
Butler said: "Mr. President, I can help you solve 
that problem. The terms of enlistment of these troops 
will not expire for a year or more. As a military 

153 



154 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

measure, take them to Panama and build the canal 
with them. Make me a major-general, put me in com- 
mand, and we will take them over and build and own 
the ttanal. As fast as possible we will take their families 
to them; the climate is about the same as they are used 
to; give them some land, and we will dig and own the 
canal." 

"What does Seward say? What does or what will 
Congress say?" asked President Lincoln. 
"All favorable." 
"What will Greeley say?" 

He was rather more afraid of Greeley than of Jeffer- 
son Davis. 

I had known Greeley well; had been on several mis- 
sions to Mr. Greeley for the President. I could and did 
go many times where and when his secretaries could 
not well go, for they were known. 

I was not especially known. I was on General Dix's 
staff in New York. Had charge of the sick and wounded 
soldiers passing to and from the hospitals through the 
city at that time. He telegraphed General Dix to send 
me to Washington by first train. I left New York Tues- 
day night, reached Washington Wednesday morning. 
A great crowd of people were around the White House. 
I held the telegram up. President Lincoln saw it; said, 
"Come at ten to-night." It was twelve at night before 
he could get away and lock up. We worked until three 
A. M. and then retired. Thursday night we worked on 
the proposition until three a. m. and still it did not quite 
suit Mr. Lincoln. Friday was cabinet meeting. He 
locked all the doors at its close and ordered our dinner 
brought up. He finished the paper. We ate dinner and 
he read it over. One door was not locked. Mrs. Lincoln 
came and said: "Abe, the Ford's Theater people have 
tendered us a box for this evening, and I have accepted 
it. The Grants are going with us, and I do not want 
you to make any other engagement." 



APPENDIX F 155 

Mr. Lincoln said: "Mary, I don't think we ought 
to go to the theater. Do you remember it is Good Fri- 
day, a religious day with a great many people, and I 
don't think we ought to go to the theater to-night." 

Mrs. Lincoln said: "We are going." 

We finished dinner. He read the paper over again. 
He folded it carefully and handed it to me saying, 
"Merwin, we have cleaned up a colossal job. We have 
abolished slavery. After reconstruction the next great 
movement on the part of the people will be the over- 
throw of the legalized liquor traffic, and you know my 
heart and my hand, my purse and my life will be given 
to that great movement." 

"Mr. Lincoln, shall I make this public?" asked I. 

He said, "Yes; publish it as broad as the daylight." 
With that he shook my hand again and said, "By the 
way, stop over in Philadelphia and see the editors there." 

I stopped over in Philadelphia, waited until 12 o'clock. 
The editors did not come. I went to the Continental 
Hotel, and to my room, and then the news came that 
Lincoln had been assassinated. In the morning I took 
the cars for New York, waited two hours to see Greeley, 
and left the paper with Sidney Gay, brother-in-law to 
Greeley and assistant business manager of the Tribune. 
He gave the paper to Greeley and that was the last of it. 
It was mislaid ; could not be found. Lincoln had passed 
on into the eternal silences, and we are not yet "re- 
constructed." 

But we are doing something to abolish the legalized 
liquor traffic. I am, first, last, and all the time a Pro- 
hibitionist, as Mr. Lincoln was, but if I could not pro- 
hibit and suppress the traffic in all the territory of the 
State of New York, if I could persuade a town, city or 
county to vote it out, I would do that and be thankful. 
Mr. Lincoln and I canvassed the State of Illinois to- 
gether for three or more months in 1855. Mr. Lincoln 
drew the Prohibitory Law. The Legislature passed it. 



156 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

submitting it to a vote of the people. We came near — 
we did carry it, but Kentucky, Missouri, and Wisconsin 
poured in nearly 20,000 illegal votes in the counties 
bordering on those States, and then with those illegal 
votes counted, beat us with only a little over 14,000 
votes. Some hard cases voted with us. I asked Mr. 
Lincoln if we wanted such votes. 

"Want them? Of course we do. I have lived here 
many years. I have never seen saints marching in bat- 
talions in Illinois yet. First the blade, then the ear, 
then the full corn, etc. Work with any and all who will 
help us," Mr. Lincoln said. 

"Welcome one, ten, ten thousand," Mr. Lincoln said 
in bis plain, pathetic way. "We must meet the traflSc 
in one of two ways. We must furnish the recruits to 
keep up the ever-increasing army of drunkards or we 
must take temptation out of the way of the rising gen- 
eration by prohibiting it. Which way do you prefer to 
meet the traffic?" 

There was no continued bawl for money. We raised 
$25,000 in a few days in Chicago. William B. Ogden, 
president of the C. & N. W. R. R., sent for Mr. Lincoln 
and said: "Here is my check for $2,500. If you need 
more I will duplicate it whenever you call." Others 
gave $500. A large number of bankers in Chicago gave 
$500. So, now, if the case is plainly stated, as Mr. 
Lincoln put it, the money will come — all that is needed. 

I am enclosing President Lincoln's "military order" 
and the indorsement of Lieutenant-General Winfield 
Scott. 

General Scott said: "Shall I make it an order or a 
request?" 

President Lincoln said: "A request will do," and 
it did do. When General Scott was retired Mr. Lincoln 
fixed it so I could and should go when and where he 
wanted me to go. 

I am greatly pleased to know that you saw Mr. Lin- 



APPENDIX F 157 

coin the day he was assassinated after I left. I started 
from Washington about 2:30 or 3 p. m. I did not know 
that he was intending to ride over to the Navy Yard 
that evening. I congratulate you upon your good for- 
tune and your memory of him must be a precious recol- 
lection. 

Most cordially yours, 

(Signed) J. B. Mebwin. 



APPENDIX G 

DR. NATHAN SMITH DAVIS, PIONEER 
TEMPERANCE ADVOCATE 

Nathan Smith Davis was born January 9, 1817, 
in the town of Greene, Chenango County, New York. 
In January, 1837, he graduated from Fairfield College 
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He was on the 
faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New 
York city, and in 1849 accepted the chair of physiology 
and pathology at Chicago Rush Medical College, holding 
the chair of practical medicine at the college. Dr. Davis 
was one of Chicago's most prominent citizens. He was 
a member of the Methodist Church from boyhood and 
was a large and frequent contributor to many public 
and private charities. Perhaps, however, the doctor's 
prominent characteristic and the one that made him so 
potential a factor for good was his persistent, arduous, 
and uncompromising advocacy of temperance and his 
constant assaults upon the evils of strong drink. 



158 



APPENDIX H 

EX-SECRETARY ROBERT T. LINCOLN'S LETTER 
ABOUT MERWIN 

1775 N Street, Washington, D. C. 

April 30, 1917. 
My Dear Mr. White: 

My acknowledgment of your letter of April 20 has 
been delayed by much pressure of work; I am glad to 
have it with its inclosures. 

You will perhaps be surprised to know that I never 
heard of James B. Merwin until a few months ago when 
some one wrote me in regard to some of his quotations 
of my father. I thereupon obtained a book I had not 
before seen called Footprints of Abraham Lincoln, by 
the Rev. J. T. Hobson, and in this book I found much 
mention of Mr. Merwin, and I must confess to you that 
I was dumfounded to know that my father had a friend 
who claimed such intimacy with him and of whom I 
knew nothing whatever. I was surprised, too, by some 
of his statements which indicated that he accompanied 
my father on a long temperance campaign in Illinois 
at a time when I supposed my father was giving all 
the attention he could possibly take away from his 
professional work, upon which depended his living, 
in a campaign against the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise. You will find in Nicolay & Hay 
reference to the political work, but none to the 
temperance work at any such time. You may think 
that I was too young to do so, but I very well remember 
that political campaign of my father and even drove him 
to a number of meetings; if it is true, as I believe 

159 



160 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

it is, that I never heard him speak of Merwin, it is at 
least queer. Then as to his dining with my father on 
the day of his death I can only say this: I arrived 
from Appomattox on the morning of that day and break- 
fasted with my father; I do not recall anything about 
luncheon, but I dined with him and my mother in the 
evening of that day and I simply know that neither 
Mr. Merwin nor any other guest was present at the 
dinner. Perhaps Mr. Merwin did take luncheon with 
him and calls it dinner; that is entirely possible, but I 
know nothing of it, and personally I have my doubts 
as to the truth of the statement. That was a very busy day 
at the White House; General Grant was in town and 
conferred with my father; there v/as a Cabinet meeting, 
and it is hard to make me believe that on that day he 
discussed with Mr. Merwin a plan for the extension and 
completion of the Panama Canal by means of the labor 
of the freedmen, and plans for his going to New York 
to secure the views of Horace Greeley and others on 
that subject. 

The sum of this is that while there may be no doubt 
of Mr. Merwin having done something in the cause of 
temperance, I cannot help the feeling that in his ac- 
count of things he has let his imagination run a little 
wild. 

I notice you speak of him with quotation marks as 
"Major" Merwin. In the inclosures you sent me he is 
referred to by General Scott as "Mr." Merwin and by 
my father in the same way. I find in a well-known Army 
Register that he was appointed by the President, Hos- 
pital Chaplain in the Volunteer Service, June 13, 1862, 
and that he went out of the Service August 21, 1865. 
I do not think that Chaplains had the rank of Major 
or were called so. 

As an illustration of the growth of inventions, in the 
book of Dr. Hobson, who never saw my father, I find at 
page 53 the following statement: 



APPENDIX H 161 

"Mr. Lincoln often 'preached' what he called his 'ser- 
mon to boys,' as follows: 'Don't drink, don't gamble, 
don't smoke, don't lie, don't cheat. Love your fellow 
men, love God, love truth, love virtue, and be happy.' " 

In the inquiry made of me of which I wrote above, a 
later author improved this invention of Dr. Hobson's 
as follows: 

"The Hon. Robert T. Lincoln has stated that his 
father never used liquor or tobacco in any form, and 
quotes the following sermon, as he calls it, which he 
preached to his boys: 'Don't drink, don't smoke, don't 
chew, don't swear, don't gamble, don't lie, don't cheat. 
Love your fellow men and love God. Love truth, love 
virtue and be happy.' " 

I never made the statement nor heard of it until I 
saw it as indicated. 

Very truly yours, 

RoBEKT T. Lincoln. 

Hon. Charles T. White. 



APPENDIX I 
LINCOLN AND A PANAMA CANAL 

On account of the fact that President Lincoln, accord- 
ing to the narrative of James B. Merwin, had in mind 
the employment of Civil War colored soldiers for the 
construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, 
explicit treatment of that fact would seem to he fully 
warranted. 

Merwin says that on the very afternoon preceding the 
assassination of the President he was privately com- 
missioned by the President to see Col. A. K. McClure, 
of the Philadelphia Times, and Horace Greeley, of the 
New York Tribune, concerning the feasibility of a plan 
by General Benjamin F. Butler for the construction of 
a Panama Canal, the manual labor to be performed 
mainly by the colored soldiers. Mr. Merwin In a sense 
connects Lincoln's uncontroverted statement concerning 
his hope for the abolition of the drink evil with this 
mission by Merwin to McClure and Greeley relating 
to the Butler canal plan. 

Lincoln writers have not accorded to this fact the 
weight which its importance warrants. According to 
General Butler's own narrative, President Lincoln was 
very much concerned, following the surrender of Lee 
and his visit to Richmond, over the possibility of trouble 
between the white and black races after the colored 
soldiers had been mustered out of the army. General 
Butler says that President Lincoln sent for him, and 
said: 

"General Butler, I am troubled about the Negroes, 
We are soon to have peace. We have got some one 
hundred and odd thousand Negroes who have been 

102 



APPENDIX I 163 

trained to arms. When peace shall come I fear lest 
these colored men shall organize themselves in the 
South, especially in the States where the Negroes are in 
preponderance in numbers, into guerilla parties, and we 
shall have down there a warfare between the whites and 
the Negroes. In the course of the reconstruction of the 
government it will become a question of how the Negro 
is to be disposed of. Would it not be possible to export 
them to some place, say Liberia or South America, and 
organize them into communities to support themselves? 
Now, General, I wish you would examine the practica- 
bility of such exportation. Your organization of the 
flotilla which carried your army from Yorktown and 
Fort Monroe to City Point, and its success, show that 
you understand such matters. Will you give this your 
attention, and at as early a date as possible, report to 
me your views upon the subject?" 

General Butler after a few days of preparation called 
on President Lincoln and after an extended conversation 
convinced him that the exportation idea was entirely 
impracticable, one paragraph of his report suggesting 
that Negro children would be born faster than the gov- 
ernment's whole naval and merchant vessels, if all of 
them were devoted to that use, could carry them from 
the country. 

President Lincoln said that Butler's deductions 
seemed to be correct; Butler then brought forward his 
canal suggestion: 

"We have," said he, "large quantities of clothing to 
clothe them, large quantities of provision with which 
to supply them, and arms and everything necessary for 
them, even to spades and shovels, mules and wagons. I 
know of a concession of the United States of Colombia's 
for a tract of thirty miles wide across the Isthmus of 
Panama for opening a ship canal. The enlistments of 
the Negroes have all of them from two to three years to 
run. Why not send them all down there to dig the 



164 LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 

canal? They will withstand the climate, and the work 
can be done with less cost to the United States in that 
way than in any other. If you choose, I will take com- 
mand of the expedition. Shall I work out the details 
of such an expedition for you, Mr. President?" 

President Lincoln, after reflecting for some time, said: 
"There is meat in that suggestion, General Butler, 
there is meat in that suggestion. Go and talk to Seward, 
and see what foreign complication there will be about 
it. Then think it over, get your figures made and come 
to me again as soon as you can." 

General Butler called upon Secretary of State Seward 
and explained in a few words what the President 
wanted. Seward said: 

"Yes, General, I know that the President is greatly 
worried upon this subject. He has spoken to me of it 
frequently, and yours may be a solution of it; but to-day 
is my mail day. I am very much driven with what must 
be done to-day; but I dine, as you know, at six o'clock. 
Come and take a family dinner with me, and afterward, 
over an indifferent cigar, we will talk this matter over 
fully." 

That evening Secretary Seward in his drive before 
dinner was thrown from his carriage and severely in- 
jured, his jaw being broken, and he was confined to his 
bed until the assassination of Lincoln, and the at- 
tempted murder of himself by one of the confederates of 
Booth, so that the subject was not again brought to 
President Lincoln by General Butler or Secretary 
Seward. 

But the President, with characteristic tenacity of pur- 
pose, followed up the matter by directing Merwin to' 
confer with McClure and Greeley about the feasibility 
of the scheme, with the result as stated elsewhere by 
Merwin in his own narrative. 



APPENDIX J 

TEXT OF MAINE PROHIBITION LAW 
(ADOPTED 1851) 

An Act for the Suppression of Drinking Houses and 

Tippling Shops. 

Section 1. No person shall be allowed at any time, 
to manufacture or sell, by himself, his clerk, servant or 
agent, directly or indirectly, any spirituous intoxicating 
liquors, or any mixed liquors, a part of which is spirit- 
uous or intoxicating, except as hereafter provided. 

Sec. 2. The selectmen of any town, and mayor and 
aldermen of any city, on the first Monday of May, an- 
nually, or as soon thereafter as may be convenient, may 
appoint some suitable person as the agent of said town 
or city, to sell at some central or convenient place 
within said town or city, spirits, wine, or any other in- 
toxicating liquor, to be used for medicinal and mechani- 
cal purposes, and no other; and said agent shall re- 
ceive such compensation for his services as the board ap- 
pointing him shall prescribe; and shall in the sale of 
such liquors conform to such rules and regulation, as the 
selectmen, or mayor and aldermen as aforesaid shall 
prescribe for that purpose. And such agent appointed as 
aforesaid shall hold his situation for one year, unless 
sooner removed by the board from which he received 
his appointment, as he may be at any time at the 
pleasure of the board. 

Sec. 3. Such agent shall receive a certificate from 
the mayor, and aldermen or selectmen by whom he has 
been appointed, authorizing him as the agent of such 
town or city, to sell intoxicating liquors for medioinal 
and mechanical purposes; but such certificate shall not 

165 



166 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

be delivered to the person so appointed until he shall 
have executed and delivered to said board a bond with 
two good and suflBcient sureties in the sum of $600 in 
substance as follows: 

Know All Men that we, as principal, and 

and as sureties, are holden and stand firmly- 
bound to the inhabitants of in (or city, as the 

case may be) in the sum of $600 to be paid them, to 
which payment we bind ourselves, our heirs, executors, 
and administrators, firmly by these presents. 

Sealed with our seal, and dated this day of 

A. D. 

The condition of this obligation is such, that whereas, 

the above bounden has been duly appointed as 

agent for the town (or city) of , to sell within 

and for and on account of said town (or city) intoxi- 
cating liquors for medicinal and mechanical purposes, 

and no other, until the of A. D., unless 

sooner removed from said agency. 

Now if the said — shall in all respects conform to 

all the provisions of the law relating to the business for 
which he is appointed, and to such rules and regulations 
as now are or shall be from time to time established by 
the board making the appointment, then this obligation 
to be void; otherwise to remain in full force. 

Sec. 4. If any person, by himself, clerk, servant, or 
agent, shall at any time sell any spirituous or intoxi- 
cating liquors, or any mixed liquors, part of v/hich is 
intoxicating, in violation of the provision of this act, 
he shall forfeit and pay on the first conviction ten dol- 
lars and the cost of prosecution and shall stand com- 
mitted until the same be paid; on the second conviction 
he shall pay twenty dollars, and the cost of prosecution, 
and shall stand or be committed until the same be paid; 
on the third and every subsequent conviction he shall 
pay twenty dollars and the costs of prosecution and 
shall be imprisoned in the common jail not less than 



APPENDIX J 167 

three months, nor more than six months, and in default 
of the payment of the fine and costs prescribed by this 
section for the first and second convictions, the convict 
shall not be entitled to the benefit of Chapter 175 of the 
Revised Statutes until he shall have been imprisoned 
two months; and in default of payment of fines and 
costs provided for the third and every subsequent con- 
viction, he shall not be entitled to the benefits of said 
Chapter 175 of the Revised Statutes until he shall have 
been imprisoned four months. And if any clerk, serv- 
ant, agent, or other persons in the employment or on 
the premises of another shall violate the provisions of 
this section, he shall be held equally guilty with the 
principal and on conviction shall suffer the same penalty. 

Sec. 5. Any forfeiture or penalty arising under the 
above section may be recovered by an action of debt or 
by complaint before any justice of the peace, or judge 
of any municipal or police court, in the county where 
the offense was committed, and the forfeiture so re- 
covered shall go to the town where the convicted party 
resides for the use of the poor; and the prosecutor, or 
complainant, may be admitted as a witness in the trial. 
And if anyone of the selectmen, or board of mayor and 
aldermen shall approve of the commencement of any 
such suit, by indorsing his name upon the writ, the 
defendant shall in no event recover any costs; and in 
all actions of debt arising under this section, the fines 
and forfeitures suffered by the defendant, shall be the 
same as if the action had been by complaint. And it 
shall be the duty of the mayor and aldermen of any city, 
and selectmen of any town, to commence an action in 
behalf of said town or city against any person guilty of 
a violation of any of the provisions of this act, on being 
informed of the same, and being furnished with proof 
of the fact. 

Sec. 6. If any person shall claim an appeal from a 
judgment rendered against him by any judge or justice, 



168 LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 

on trial of such action or complaint, he shall, before the 
appeal shall be allowed, recognize in the sum of one 
hundred dollars, with two good and suflBcient sureties, 
in every case so appealed, to prosecute his appeal, and 
to pay all costs, fines and penalties that may be awarded 
against him, upon a final disposition of such suit or 
complaint. And before his appeal shall be allowed he 
shall also, in every case, give a bond, with two other 
good and suflacient sureties, running to the town or city 
where the offense was committed, in the sum of two 
hundred dollars, that he will not, during the pendency 
of such appeal, violate any of the provisions of this act. 
And no recognizance, or bond, shall be taken in cases 
arising tmder this act except by the justices or judges 
before whom the trial was had; and the defendant shall 
be held to advance the jury fees in every case of appeal 
in an action of debt; and in the event of a final convic- 
tion before a jury, the defendant shall pay and suffer 
double the amount of fines, penalties, and imprisonment 
awarded against him by the justice or judge from whose 
judgment the appeal was made. The forfeiture of all 
bonds and recognizances given in pursuance of this act 
shall go to the town or city where the offense was com- 
mitted for the use of the poor; and if the recognizances 
and bonds mentioned in this section shall not be given 
within twenty-four hours after the judgment, the appeal 
shall not be allowed; the defendant in the meantime to 
stand committed. 

Sec. 7. The mayor and aldermen of any city, and the 
selectmen of any town, whenever complaint shall be 
made to them that a breach of the conditions of the 
bond given by any person appointed under this act has 
been committed, shall notify the person complained of, 
and if upon a hearing of the parties it shall appear that 
any breach has been committed, they shall revoke and 
make void his appointment. And whenever a breach of 
any bond given to the inhabitants of any city or town, 



APPENDIX J 109 

in pursuance of any of the provisions of this act, shall 
be made known to the mayor and aldermen, or select- 
men, or shall in any manner come to their knowledge, 
they, or some one of them, shall, at the expense and for 
the use of said city or town, cause the bond to be put 
in suit in any court proper to try the same. 

Sec. 8. No person shall be allowed to be a manufac- 
turer of any spirituous or intoxicating liquor, or com- 
mon seller thereof, without being duly appointed as 
aforesaid, on pain of forfeiting on the first conviction 
the sum of one hundred dollars and costs of prosecution, 
and in default of the payment thereof the person so con- 
victed shall be imprisoned in the common jail sixty 
days; and on the second conviction the person so con- 
victed to pay the sum of two hundred dollars and the 
costs of prosecution, and in default of payment shall be 
imprisoned four months in the common jail; and on the 
third and every subsequent conviction shall pay the 
sum of two hundred dollars and be imprisoned four 
months in the common jail of the county where the of- 
fense was committed; said penalties to be recovered 
before any court of competent jurisdiction, by indict- 
ment, or by action of debt in the name of the city or 
town where the offense shall be committed. And when- 
ever a default shall be had of any recognizance arising 
under this act, scire facias shall be issued, returnable at 
the next term, and the same shall not be continued, un- 
less for good cause, satisfactory to the court. 

Sec. 9. No person engaged in the unlawful traffic in 
intoxicating liquors shall be competent to sit upon any 
jury in any case arising under this act; and when in- 
formation shall be communicated to the court that any 
member of any panel is engaged in such traffic, or that 
he is believed to be so engaged, the court shall inquire 
of the jurymen of whom such belief is entertained; and 
no answer which he shall make shall be used against 
him in any case arising under this act; but if he shall 



170 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

answer falsely, he shall be incapable of serving on any 
jury in this State, but he may decline to answer, in 
which case he shall be discharged by the court from all 
further attendance as a juryman. 

Sec. 10. All cases arising under this act, whether by 
action, indictment, or complaint, which shall come be- 
fore a superior court, either by appeal or original entry, 
shall take precedence in said court of all other busi- 
ness, except those criminal cases in which the parties 
are under arrest awaiting a trial; and the court, and 
prosecuting officers shall not have authority to enter 
a nolle proseq^ii, or to grant a continuance in any case 
arising under this act either before or after the verdict, 
except where the purposes of justice shall require it. 

Sec. 11. If any three persons voters in the town or 
city where the complaint shall be made shall, before 
any justice of the peace, or judge of any municipal or 
police court, make complaint under oath or affirmation, 
that they have reason to believe, and do believe, that 
spirituous or intoxicating liquors are kept or deposited, 
and intended for sale by any persons not authorized to 
sell the same in said city or town under the provisions 
of this act, in any store, shop, warehouse, or other 
building or place, in said city or town, said justice or 
Judge shall issue his warrant of search to any sheriff, 
city marshal, or deputy, or to any constable, who shall 
proceed to search the premises described in said war- 
rant, and if any spirituous or intoxicating liquors are 
found therein, he shall seize the same, and convey them 
to some proper place of security, where he shall keep 
them until final action is had thereon. But no dwelling 
house in which, or in part of which, a shop is not kept, 
shall be searched unless at least one of said complain- 
ants shall testify to some act of sale of intoxicating 
liquors therein, by the occupant thereof, or by his con- 
sent or permission, within at least one month of the time 
of making said complaint. And the owner or keeper of 



APPENDIX J 171 

said liquors, seized as aforesaid, if he shall be known to 
the officer seizing the same, shall be summoned forthwith 
before the justice or judge by whose warrant the liquors 
were seized, and if he fails to appear, or unless he can 
show by positive proof that said liquors are of foreign 
production, that they have been imported under the 
laws of the United States, and in accordance therewith, 
that they are contained in the original packages in which 
they were imported, and in quantities not less than the 
laws of the United States prescribe, they shall be de- 
clared forfeited, and they shall be destroyed by authority 
of the written order to that effect of said justice or 
judge and in his presence, or in the presence of some 
person appointed by him to witness the destruction 
thereof, and who shall join with the officer by whom 
they shall have been destroyed in attesting that fact 
upon the back of the order by authority of which it 
was done; and the owner or keeper of such liquors 
shall pay a fine of twenty dollars and costs, or stand 
committed for thirty days, in default of payment, if in 
the opinion of the court said liquors shall have been 
kept or deposited for the purposes of sale. And if the 
owner or possessor of any liquors seized in pursuance 
of this section shall set up the claim that they have 
been regularly imported under the laws of the United 
States and that they are contained in the original pack- 
ages, the customhouse's certificates of importation and 
proofs of marks on the casks or packages corresponding 
thereto shall be received as evidence that the liquors 
contained in such packages are those actually imported 
therein. 

Sec. 12. If the owner, keeper, or possessor of liquors 
seized under the provisions of this act shall be unknown 
to the officer seizing the same, they shall not be con- 
demned and be destroyed until they shall have been 
advertised, with the number and description of the pack- 
ages, as near as may be, for two weeks, by posting up a 



172 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

written description of the same in some public place 
that If such liquors are actually the property of any 
city or town in the State, and were so at the time of the 
seizure, purchased for sale by the agent of said city or 
town, for medicinal or mechanical purposes, only, in 
pursuance of the provisions of this act, they may not 
be destroyed; but upon satisfactory proof of such owner- 
ship within said two weeks before the justice or judge 
by whose authority said liquors were seized, said justice 
or judge shall deliver to the agent of said city or town, 
an order to the officer having said liquors in custody, 
whereupon said officer shall deliver them to said agent, 
taking his receipt therefor upon the back of said order, 
which shall be returned to said justice or judge. 

Sec. 13. If any person claiming any liquors seized as 
aforesaid shall appeal from the judgment of any justice 
or judge by whose authority the seizure was made, to 
the district court, before his appeal shall be allowed, he 
shall give a bond in the sum of two hundred dollars, 
with two good and sufficient sureties to prosecute his 
appeal, and to pay all fines and costs which may be 
awarded against him; and in the case of any such ap- 
peal, where the quantity of liquors so seized shall ex- 
ceed five gallons, if the final decision shall be against 
the appellant that such liquors were intended for him 
by sale, he shall be adjudged by the court a common 
seller of intoxicating liquors, and shall be subject of the 
penalties provided for in section eight of this act; and 
said liquors shall be destroj'ed as provided for in sec- 
tion eleven, but nothing contained in this act shall be 
construed to prevent any chemist, artist, or manu- 
facturer, in whose art or trade they may be necessary, 
from keeping at his place of business such reasonable 
and proper quantities of distilled liquors as he may have 
occasion to use in his art or trade, but not for sale. 

Sec. 14. It shall be the duty of any mayor, alderman, 
selectman, assessor, city marshal, or deputy or con- 



APPENDIX J 173 

stable, if he shall have information that any Intoxicating 
liquors are kept or sold in any tent, shanty, hut or place 
of any kind for selling refreshments in any public place, 
on or near the ground of any cattle show, agricultural 
exhibition, military muster, or public occasion of any 
kind, to search such suspected place, and if such officer 
shall find upon the premises, any intoxicating drinks, 
he shall seize them and arrest the keeper or keepers of 
such place, and take them forthwith, or as soon as may 
be, before some justice or judge or municipal or police 
court, with the liquors so found or seized, and upon 
proof that such liquors are intoxicating, that they 
were found in the possession of the accused, in a tent, 
shanty, or other place as aforesaid, he or they shall be 
sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail for thirty 
days, and the liquor so seized shall be destroyed by order 
of said justice or judge. 

Sec. 15. If any person arrested under the preceding 
section, and sentenced as aforesaid, shall claim an ap- 
peal, before his appeal shall be allowed, he shall give a 
bond in the sum of one hundred dollars, with two good 
and sufficient sureties, that he will prosecute his appeal 
and pay all fines, costs, and penalties that may be 
awarded against him. And if on such appeal the verdict 
of the jury shall be against him, he shall in addition to 
the penalty awarded by the lower court, pay a fine of 
twenty dollars. In all cases of appeal under this act 
from the judgment of a justice or of a judge of any 
municipal or police court to the district court, except 
where the proceeding is by action of debt, they shall 
be conducted in said district court by the prosecuting 
officer of the government, and said officer shall be en- 
titled to receive all costs taxable to the State, in all 
criminal proceedings under this act, in addition to the 
salary allowed to such officer by law, but no costs in 
such cases shall be remitted or reduced by the prose- 
cuting officer or the court. In any suit, complaint, in- 



174 LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 

dictment, or other proceeding against any person for a 
violation of any of the provisions of this act, other than 
for the first offense, it shall not be requisite to set forth 
particularly the record of a former conviction, but it 
shall be sufficient to allege briefly that such person has 
been convicted of a violation of the fourth section of 
this act, or as a common seller as the case may be, and 
such allegation in any civil or criminal process, in any 
stage of the proceeding, before final judgment, may be 
amended without terms and as a matter of right. 

Sec. 16. All payments or compensations for liquor 
sold in violation of law, whether in money, labor, or 
other property, either real or personal, shall be held and 
considered to have been received to have been in viola- 
tion of law, and without consideration, and against law, 
equity, and a good conscience, and all sales, transfers, 
and conveyances, mortgages, liens, attachments, pledges 
and securities of every kind which either in whole or in 
part shall have been for or on account of spirituous or 
intoxicating liquors, shall be utterly null and void 
against all persons and in all cases, and no rights of any 
kind shall be acquired thereby; and in any action, either 
at law, or equity, touching such real or personal estate, 
the purchaser of such liquors may be a witness for either 
party. And no action of any kind shall be maintained 
in any court in this State, either in whole or in part, 
for intoxicating or spirituous liquors sold in any other 
State or country whatever, nor shall any action of any 
kind be had or maintained in any court of this State, 
for the recovery or possession of intoxicating or spirit- 
uous liquors, or the value thereof. 

Sec. 17. All the provisions of this act, relating to 
towns, shall be applicable to cities and plantations; and 
those relating to selectmen shall also be applied to the 
mayor and aldermen of cities and assessors of planta- 
tions. 

Sec. 18. The act entitled An Act to Restrict the Sale 



APPENDIX J 175 

of Intoxicating Drinks, approved August sixth, 1846, is 
hereby repealed, except the thirteen sections frona Sec- 
tion 10 to Section 22 inclusive, saving and reserving all 
actions or other proceedings, which are already com- 
menced by authority of the same; and all other acts, 
and parts of acts, inconsistent with this act are hereby 
repealed. This act to take effect from and after its ap- 
proval by the governor. 



APPENDIX K 

THE ILLINOIS 1855 PROHIBITION 

LAW FRAMED BY ABRAHAM 

LINCOLN 



Sale of 
intoxicating 
liquors 
prohibited 



Not to extend 
to cider and 
wine manufac- 
tured in the 
State 



AN ACT for the suppression of intem- 
perance, and to amend Chapter 30 of the 
Revised Statutes 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the people 
of the State of Illinois, represented in the 
General Assembly, That no person shall, at 
any time or place, within this State, manu- 
facture or sell, or shall, at any store, 
grocery, tavern, or place of trade, enter- 
tainment or public resort, or railroad or 
canal, or in any of the appurtenances or 
dependencies of any such place, give av?ay, 
contrary to the provisions of this act, by 
himself, his servant or agent, directly or 
indirectly, any spiritous or intoxicating 
liquor, or any mixed liquor, of which a part 
is spiritous or intoxicating, except as here- 
inafter provided; and ale, porter, lager 
beer, cider, and all wines, are included 
among intoxicating liquors within the 
meaning of this act. 

S. 2. Nothing contained in this act shall 
be construed to forbid the making of cider 
from apples, or wine from grapes, currants, 
or other fruit grown or gathered by the 
manufacturer, in this State, or the selling 
of such cider or wine, in quantities not 
less than one gallon, if made in this State, 
by the maker thereof; nor shall anything 

176 



APPENDIX K 



177 



herein prohibit the brewing of ale, porter, 
or lager beer, if manufactured in this State, 
and exported and sold in not less quantities 
than thirty gallons, without the limits of 
the same; and the person or persons manu- 
facturing or selling such ale, porter, or 
lager beer shall have first given bond as 
required by the third section of this act of 
persons engaged in the manufacture of 
alcohol or high wines; and any other 
manufacture or sale of such wine, cider, 
ale, porter, or lager beer shall be deemed 
an unlawful (sale) within the meaning of 
this act. 

S. 3. Nothing in this act shall be con- Not to extend 
strued to forbid the sale, by the importer *« imported 



thereof, of foreign spiritous or intoxicating 
liquors, imported under the authority of 
the laws of the United States regarding the than 
importation of such liquor, and in accord- gallons 
ance with said laws: Provided, that Proviso 
the said liquor, at the time of sale by said 
importer, remains in the original casks or 
packages in which it was by him imported, 
and in quantities in which the laws of the 
United States require such liquor to be 
imported, and is sold by him in said casks 
or packages, and in said quantities only; 
and the customhouse certificate of importa- 
tion, and proof of marks on the casks or 
packages in which such liquor is contained, 
corresponding thereto, shall not be received 
as evidence that the liquor contained in 
such packages is that actually imported 
therein: Provided, that nothing in this act Proviso 
contained shall be construed to prevent the 
manufacture of alcohol and high wines, if 



liquors wt 
not sold in 
leas quantitiee 



178 



LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 



License when 
and by whom 
granted to 
naanufacturers 



Licensed 
persons 
to give 
bond 



not adapted to use as a beverage, provided 
the same be exported out of this State in 
quantities not less than thirty gallons. No 
license shall be required to manufacture 
such liquor for exportation and sale as 
aforesaid, but such manufacturer shall be 
required to give bond as provided in case 
of other manufacturers, so far as applic- 
able. 

S. 4. The county court of any county, 
or in counties having township organiza- 
tion, the board of supervisors may, by cer- 
tificates signed by two thirds of the judges, 
or by two thirds of the boards of super- 
visors, give all persons who shall, in writ- 
ing, apply to them therefor, authority to 
manufacture, at such places only within 
said county as said court or board of 
supervisors shall, in said certificate, desig- 
nate, spiritous or intoxicating liquors, and 
to sell the same in those places only, to 
duly authorized agents of cities, towns, and 
counties in this State; but such authority 
shall not continue, in any case, longer than 
one year from the date of the certificate 
in that case given, and may be at any time 
revoked by said court or board of super- 
visors; and no person shall receive such 
a certificate, or exercise such authority 
until he shall have executed and delivered 
to the treasurer of said county a bond, with 
at least two good and sufficient sureties, in 
a sum not less than one thousand dollars 
nor more than ten thousand dollars, as 
said county court or board of supervisors 
shall require, conditioned that he will not, 
at any time during the year next following 



APPENDIX K 



179 



the date of his said certificate, infringe in 
any manner or degree any provision of this 
or any law of this State touching the manu- 
facture or sale of spiritous or intoxicating 
liquors. If any person so authorized and 
bound shall break the condition of such 
bond, said bond shall forthwith be put in 
suit; his said certificate and authority shall 
Instantly become void, and he shall not 
thereafter be permitted to manufacture or 
sell any spiritous or intoxicating liquor, 
and shall, moreover, be subject to all the 
penalties herein provided against the 
manufacture, sale, or giving away spiritous 
or intoxicating liquors contrary to the pro- 
visions of this act. The county court or 
board of supervisors shall not have the 
power to grant such authority to manufac- 
ture liquor for the purpose aforesaid, with- 
in the limits of any incorporated town or 
city in this State; hut such authority may 
be granted and certificates issued by the 
common council of said city or the presi- 
dent and trustees of said town, in the man- 
ner and upon the conditions above specified 
as applicable to the county court or board 
of supervisors, and the bond required shall 
be made payable to the treasurer of said 
town or city. 

S. 5. The mayor and aldermen of any License to sell, 
city may, within such city, the president when and 
and trustees of any incorporated town may, 
within such town, the board of supervisors, 
in counties having township organization, 
may, within townships not within a city or 
incorporated town, and in counties not 
having township organization, the county 



by whom 
granted 



180 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

court may, in any precinct without the 
limits of any incorporated town or city, as 
hereinafter provided, at any meeting of 
their board, court or body, duly convened, 
upon reasonable notice to every member 
thereof, appoint some suitable person or 
persons as agent or agents of said city, 
town or county, for the purchase of spirit- 
ous and intoxicating liquors, and for the 
sale thereof within such city, town, town- 
ship, or precinct, for sacramental, medici- 
nal, chemical, and mechanical uses only; 
which such agents may be removed and 
others appointed in their stead, at pleasure, 
by the body appointing, or their successors 
in oflBce, or a majority of them; but no 
more than one agent shall be appointed in 
any town, township, or precinct containing 
less than two thousand inhabitants, and not 
more than two in any incorporated town, 
city, township, or precinct containing less 
than ten thousand inhabitants, and not more 
than three such agents in any city, except 
the city of Chicago, and not more than five 
such agents shall be in office at the same 
County time in the said city of Chicago. The county 

°*^^^ court of the coimties which have not 

adopted the township organization, at any 
regualr meeting of the court for the trans- 
action of county business may, in their dis- 
cretion, upon the petition of a majority of 
the legal voters of any precinct, not being 
an incorporated town or city of the State, 
or in the limits thereof, appoint one such 
agent for said precinct. No inn-keeper, or 
keeper of a public eating house, or of a 
house of public entertainment, shall be ap- 



APPENDIX K 181 

pointed such agent. Every such agent shall Duties 
hold his office for one year, unless sooner °^ *8^°* 
removed; he shall sell such liquor only in 
the one place designated in writing by the 
body appointing him; he shall, in the pur- 
chase and sale of such liquor, conform to 
such rules and regulations as the said body 
appointing him shall prescribe, not incon- 
sistent with the provisions of this act; he 
shall keep an accurate account of all his 
purchases and all his sales, specifying in 
such account the kind, quantity, and price 
of the liquor bought by him, the date of 
each purchase made by him, and the name 
of the person of whom such purchase was 
made, the kind, quantity, and price of 
liquor sold by him, the date of each sale 
made by him, the name of the purchaser 
at every such sale, and the use for which 
the liquor on every such sale was sold, as 
stated by the purchaser, and of all for- 
feited liquor by him received and sold or 
destroyed; which account shall be at all 
times open to the inspection of the body 
appointing such agent, or any member 
thereof; and when required by said body, 
or a majority of them, he shall account 
with them regarding all his dealings as 
such agent, and exhibit to them all receipts, 
bills, books, papers of every kind, relating 
to such dealings, or to his accounts; he 
shall sell such liquor at not more than 
twenty-five per cent advance upon the cost 
thereof, and shall, when required by the 
body appointing him, pay over the proceeds 
of his sales to the treasurer of the body so 
appointing him, and he shall semiannually, 



1S2 LINCOLN AND PKOHIBITION 

or oftener, if required by the body so ap- 
pointing him, make a report, verified by 
his oath or affirmation, of all his purchases, 
and the costs thereof, and of his sales, and 
the proceeds thereof, specifying the number 
of sales, the respective quantities and kinds 
sold for each of the purposes of sacramen- 
tal, medicinal, chemical and mechanical 
uses, and the quantity and kind and cost of 
all liquors remaining on hand at the time 
of such meeting, and of all forfeited liquors 
by him received and sold or destroyed; 
which report, however, shall not specify 
the names of the persons to whom his sales 
may have been made. 

He shall receive for his services such. 
Compensation fixed and stipulated compensation as said 
body appointing said agent shall prescribe, 
but the amount of said compensation shall 
not be increased by reason of any increase 
or diminution of the sales of such liquor by 
such agent, and he shall not be in any way, 
except as one of the inhabitants of the city, 
town, county, or precinct, interested in said 
liquor, or in the purchase or sale thereof, 
or in the profits thereon; and no such agent 
shall be authorized to sell or give away any 
spiritous or intoxicating liquors, or any 
such liquors mixed with soda water, or any 
other compound, liquid, or otherwise, to be 
drank, taken, or used as medicine or other- 
wise, in their store, shop, or place of busi- 
ness, or any of the appurtenances or de- 
pendencies thereof; but any such sale or 
giving away shall subject the said agent to 
the same penalties provided for the sale or 
giving away of liquors contrary to the pro- 



APPENDIX K 



188 



visions of this act. If any person purchas- Penalty 
ing any spiritous or intoxicating liquor of 
such agent shall intentionally make to such 
agent any false statement regarding the 
use to M'hich such liquor is intended hy the 
purchaser to be applied, such person so 
offending shall, upon conviction thereof, 
forfeit and pay a fine of fifty dollars, to- 
gether with costs of his prosecution, to be 
recovered by an action of debt, before any 
justice of the peace, or, if the offense is 
committed within a city, police magistrate 
of any such city, or by indictment in the 
circuit court of the proper county. Every Certificate 
such agent shall receive, from the body ap- *° ^^ ^^^^ 
pointing him, a certificate authorizing him appokited^° 
as agent of said town, city or county, as the 
case may be, to sell at the place mentioned 
in such certificate spiritous or intoxicating 
liquors for sacramental, medicinal, chemi- 
cal, and mechanical uses only; which said 
certificate, when granted by any common 
council of a city, or president and trustees 
of a town, or county court, or board of 
supervisors, shall be issued by the clerks 
of said bodies, respectively, attested by 
their common or corporate seal, or in case 
there is no such seal, then by the private 
seal of said clerk. Said agent shall not 
receive any such certificate, or exercise his 
office until he shall have executed and de- 
livered to the body appointing him, for the 
use of the city, town, or county appointing 
him, a bond, with at least two good and 
sufficient sureties, approved by said body 
appointing him, in a sum not less than six 
hiindred dollars, in substance as follows: 



184 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

Form of bond "Know all men that we, , as princi- 
pal, and , as sureties, are held and 

firmly bound to , in the sum of 

dollars, to be paid to said , 

to which payment we bind ourselves, our 
heirs, and executors, and administrators, 
firmly by these presents. Sealed with our 

seals, and dated at , this day 

of , A. D. 

"The condition of this obligation is such, 
that whereas the above bounden 



has been appointed an agent for said 

, to sell within said and on 

account of said , spiritous or intoxi- 
cating liquors, to be used for sacramental, 
medicinal, chemical, and mechanical pur- 
poses only, until the day of , 

A. D., unless he be sooner removed from 

his agency. Now if the said shall 

In all respects conform to the provisions 
of the law in relation to his agency, and 
the laws of this State relating to the sale 
of spiritous or intoxicating liquors, then 
this obligation to be void." 

Penalty S. 6. If any such agent shall break the 

condition of such bond, such bond shall be 
forthwith put in suit, and his said certifi- 
cate and appointments shall immediately 
become void, and he shall not thereafter be 
permitted to act as agent for the sale of 
liquors anywhere in this State; and, more- 
over, for any such violation shall be liable 
to the same penalties herein by this act 
provided for the illegal sale or giving away 
of liquors contrary to the provisions of 
this act. 



APPENDIX K 185 

S, 7. Every person who shall, in viola- Penalty for 
tion of this act, manufacture spiritous or the violation 

. , ,. i. oi tlie pro- 

mtoxicating liquor, or mixed liquor of ^jgiona of thia 
which a part is spiritous or intoxicating act after first 
liquor, shall pay, on his first conviction conviction 
for said offense, a fine of one hundred dol- 
lars and the costs of prosecution, and in. 
default of payment thereof shall be im- 
prisoned sixty days in the common jail; on 
his second conviction for said offense he 
shall pay a fine of two hundred dollars and 
the costs of prosecution, and in default of 
payment thereof he shall be imprisoned 
four months in the common jail; and on 
every subsequent conviction for said offense 
he shall pay a fine of two hundred dollars 
and be imprisoned four months in the com- 
mon jail. Every prosecution under this 
section, if the offense is committed within 
the limits of any city, shall be heard and 
determined before the police magistrate's 
court, and said court shall, upon every con- 
viction, order that the person so convicted 
shall stand committed until the fine and 
costs are fully paid; or, if upon the first 
conviction, until he shall have been im- 
prisoned sixty days, and also that he be 
imprisoned for the period herein provided, 
if upon a subsequent conviction; or such 
prosecutions for offenses against the pro- 
visions of this section, when committed 
without the limits of a city, shall, in the 
first instance, be brought before any justice 
of the peace of the proper county, who 
shall thereupon proceed in the same man- 
ner as provided for in the 203d section, of 
Chapter XXX, of the Revised Statutes, in 



186 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 



Penalty for 
giving away 
or exchanging 
for other 
property 



reference to the violations of the provisions 
of that chapter. 

S. 8. If any person, in violation of this 
act, by himself, his servant or agent, shall, 
for himself or anybody else, directly or in- 
directly, or on any pretense, or by any de- 
vice, sell, or in consideration of the pur- 
chase of any other property give to any 
person any spiritous or intoxicating liquor, 
or any liquor of which part is spiritous or 
intoxicating, or shall at any store, grocery, 
tavern, or place of trade, entertainment, or 
public resort, or in any of the appurte- 
nances or dependencies of any such place 
or any public place, give away any such 
liquors, he shall pay, on his first conviction 
for said offense, fifty dollars and the costs 
of prosecution; and on the second convic- 
tion for said offense he shall pay a fine of 
one hundred dollars and costs of prosecu- 
tion, and on every subsequent conviction he 
shall pay a fine of two hundred dollars and 
the costs of prosecution, and shall be im- 
prisoned not less than three months nor 
more than six months. Every prosecution 
under this section shall, if the offense is 
committed within the corporate limits of 
any city, be heard and determined before 
one of the police magistrate's courts in 
said city, and said police magistrates are 
authorized and required, in case of convic- 
tion, to order the person or persons so 
convicted to stand committed until the fine 
and costs are fully paid, and also to com- 
mit said convicted persons for the term of 
imprisonment for which they may be sen- 
tenced. In cases of trial by jury under 



APPENDIX K IS'J 

this section, the jury shall fix the time of 
imprisonment in case of conviction as 
above provided, but if the accused shall 
plead guilty, or shall consent to the trial 
by said police magistrate, then the said 
police magistrate may fix the term of im- 
prisonment; or prosecutions for the first 
and second of said offenses, when commit- 
ted without and beyond the limits of any 
city, shall be brought in the first place be- 
fore any justice of the peace of the county 
■where said offenses may be committed, who 
may hear and determine the same, and 
upon conviction, issue execution against 
the goods and chattels for the fine and 
costs, or the said justice in his discretion 
may proceed according to section 203d, of 
Chapter XXX, of the Revised Statutes, and 
In the manner therein provided for offenses 
against the provisions of that chapter; and 
prosecutions for the third or any subse- 
quent offense committed without the limits 
of any city, shall also be first brought be- 
fore any justice of the peace of the proper 
county, who shall thereupon proceed ac- 
cording to said section 203d, of Chapter 
XXX, Revised Statutes. 

All clerks, agents, and servants of every Penalties 
kind employed in selling or keeping for applicable 
sale, or giving away, in violation of the *° '^^^^^' 

1, .1 • i . ... agents and 

provisions of this act, of any spiritous or servants 
intoxicating liquor, or any mixed liquor, 
a part of which is spiritous or intoxicating, 
shall incur the same penalties and be 
prosecuted against in the same manner as 
principals, and may in the information, 
indictment, or complaint, be charged in 



188 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

the same manner and be convicted, whether 
their principals be convicted or not. No 
such clerk, servant, or agent shall be ex- 
cused from testifying against his principal 
upon the ground or for the reason that he 
may thereby criminate himself; but no 
testimony so given by him shall in any 
prosecution be used as evidence, either di- 
rectly or indirectly, against said clerk, 
servant, or agent, nor shall he thereafter 
be prosecuted for any offense so disclosed 
by him. 
Penalty for S. 9. No person shall own or keep any 

the violation spiritous or intoxicating liquor, or any 
of the pro- mixed liquor of which a part is spiritous 

— ■ -- of 



this act ^^ intoxicating, with intent to sell or give 

away the same in violation of this act, or to 
permit the same to be sold or given away 
in violation of this act; and every person 
who shall own or keep any such liquor with 
any such intent, shall, on his iirst convic- 
tion for said offense, pay a fine of fifty 
dollars and the costs of prosecution; on 
his second conviction shall pay a fine of 
one hundred dollars and costs of prosecu- 
tion; on every subsequent conviction for 
said offense he shall pay a fine of two hun- 
dred dollars and the costs of prosecution, 
and shall be imprisoned not less than three 
nor more than six months. Every prose- 
cution for said offenses when committed 
within the corporate limits of any city in 
this State, shall be heard and determined 
by one of the police magistrates of said 
city, and such magistrate is authorized 
and required to order any person so con- 
victed before him to stand committed until 



APPENDIX K 189 



the fine and costs imposed hereby are fully 
paid, and to stand committed for the time 
of imprisonment for which he may be sen- 
tenced, as herein provided for; and when 
said offenses shall be committed beyond 
the limits of any city, then said prosecu- 
tions shall first be brought before some jus- 
tice of the peace of the proper county, 
who may hear and determine prosecutions 
for the first and second offenses, and i^sue 
executions against the goods and chattels 
of any person convicted before him there- 
for; or the said justice, in his discretion, 
may proceed according to section 203, of 
Chapter XXX, in the Revised Statutes, in 
the manner provided therein in relation to 
offenses against such chapter; and every 
prosecution for a subsequent offense so com- 
mitted beyond the limits of any city, shall 
first be brought before some justice of the 
peace of the proper county, who shall 
thereupon proceed acording to said section 
203, of Chapter XXX, Revised Statutes. 
And upon the trial of every complaint for 
the violation of this section or of the eighth, 
section of this act, proof of the finding of 
the liquor specified in the complaint in the 
posesssion of the accused, in any place 
except his private dwelling house or its de- 
pendencies (or in such dwelling house, or de- 
pendencies if the same be a tavern, public 
eating house, grocery, or other place of 
public resort), shall be received by the 
court, magistrate, or justice of the peace, 
as presumptive evidence that such liquor 
was kept for sale contrary to the provisions 
of this act. 



190 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 



Appeal may 
be taken 



Written 
complaint 
to be made 



S. 10. Any person may appeal from a 
final judgment rendered against him by a 
justice of the peace for a first or second 
offense under section eight or section nine, 
and from any final judgment of a police 
magistrate of any city, to the circuit court 
of the county wherein said judgment may 
have been rendered: Provided, he shall 
forthwith give bond in not less than five 
hundred dollars, with at least two good and 
BUfflcient sureties, with condition to appear 
at the court appealed to, and there to 
prosecute his appeal and to abide the sen- 
tence of the court thereon, and that he will 
not, during the pendency of such appeal, 
violate the provisions of this act. Said 
bond may be approved by the justice of the 
peace or police magistrate rendering the 
judgment or by the clerk of the circuit 
court, in the manner provided by law in 
other cases. 

S. 11. All spiritous or intoxicating 
liquors, and all mixed liquors, of which 
a part is spiritous or intoxicating, intended 
by the owner or keeper thereof to be sold 
or given away, in violation of this act, 
shall, with the vessels in which it is con- 
tained, be deemed a nuisance, and shall, 
with said vessels, be forfeited to the city, 
town, or county in which it is kept. 

S. 12. If any two or more persons, resi- 
dents in any city, county, or town, being of 
full age, shall before a justice of the peace 
of the county or police magistrate of said 
city, make written complaint that any 
spiritous or intoxicating liquor, or any 
mixed liquor, of which a part is spiritous 



APPENDIX K 191 



or intoxicating (described as nearly as may 
be in said complaint) is in said town, 
city, or county in any place described as 
nearly as may be in said complaint, or in 
any steamboat, or water craft of any kind, 
depot, railroad car or land carriage of any 
kind, described as nearly as may be in 
said complaint, or in a street or public 
highway, or any public place whatsoever, 
described as nearly as may be in said com- 
plaint, kept, owned, or carried by any per- 
son or corporation, described as nearly as 
may be in said complaint, and is intended 
by him or them to be sold or given away in 
violation of this act; and if said complain- 
ants shall, before said justice or police 
magistrate, as the case may be, make oath 
or aflSrmation that they have reason to be- 
lieve, and do believe, to be substantially 
true the allegations in said complaint, said 
justice or police magistrate, as the case 
may be (upon finding probable cause for 
said complaint), shall issue his warrant 
of search, directed to the sheriff of the 
county, his deputy, or any constable of said 
county, or if to be executed within the 
limits of a city, to the sheriff of the 
county, his deputy, or any constable of the 
county or city marshal of said city or his 
deputies, describing as nearly as may be 
the liquor and the place described in said 
complaint, and the person described in 
said complaint as the owner or keeper of 
said liquor, and commanding said officer to 
search thoroughly the said place, to seize 
said liquor, with the vessels containing it, 
and to keep the same securely until final 



192 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

Proviso action be had thereon: Provided, however, 

that if the place to be searched be a dwell- 
ing house in which any family resides, and 
in which no tavern, eating house, grocery, 
or other place of public resort is kept, 
such warrant shall not be issued, unless 
one at least of said complainants shall on 
oath or affirmation before said justice or 
police magistrate declare that he has rea- 
son to believe, and does believe, that 
•within one month next before the making 
of said complaint, spiritous or intoxicating 
liquor, or mixed liquor, of which a part is 
spiritous or intoxicating, has been, in vio- 
lation of this act, sold in said house or in 
some dependency thereof, by the person 
accused in said complaint, or by his con- 
sent or permission; nor unless from the 
facts and circumstances disclosed by said 
complaint to said justice or police magis- 
trate, said justice or police magistrate shall 
be of opinion that said complainant has 
adequate reason for such belief. Whenever 
the offense shall be alleged to be without 
and beyond the limits of an incorporated 
town or city, then the complaint herein 
provided for may be made by any residents 
of the county before any justice of the 
peace of the county, and warrant of search 
may be issued by such justice in the man- 
ner herein above provided. 
Duty of Justices S. 13. Whenever upon such warrant 
of the peace ^^^^ liquor Shall have been seized, the 

and police 

magistrates justice Or police magistrate issuing said 
warrant shall, within forty-eight hours 
after such seizure, cause to be posted upon 
some public place within such town, city. 



APPENDIX K 193 



or (in case the said liquor is so found 
without the limits of an incorporated town 
or city), county, and to be left at the place 
where said liquor was seized, if said place 
be a dwelling house, store, or shop, and 
to be left with or at the last usual place 
of abode of the person named in said com- 
plaint as owner or keeper of said liquor, 
if such person be a resident of this State, a 
notice summoning such person, and all 
others whom it may concern, to appear be- 
fore said justice or police magistrate, at a 
place and time named in said notice, which 
time shall not be less than two or more 
than four weeks after the posting and leav- 
ing of said notices, and show cause, if any 
they have, why said liquor should not be 
forfeited, with the vessels containing it; 
and said notice shall, with reasonable cer- 
tainty, describe said liquor and vessels, 
and state where, when, and why the same 
were seized. At the time and place pre- 
scribed in said notice the person named in 
such complaint, or any person claiming an 
interest in said liquor and vessels, or any 
part thereof, may appear and show cause 
why the same should not be forfeited. If 
any person shall then and there so appear, 
he shall become a party defendant in said 
cause, and said justice or police magistrate 
shall make a record thereof. Whether any 
person so appear or not said complainants 
or either of them, or upon the failure of 
such complainants the ofQcer having such 
liquor in custody, shall appear before said 
justice of the peace, or police magistrate, 
and prosecute said complaint, and show 



194 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

cause why such liquor should be adjudged 
forfeited; and said justice or police magis- 
trate shall make a record of such appear- 
ance and the name of such prosecutor, and 
shall proceed to inquire whether said 
liquor and vessels be liable to forfeiture; 
and if upon the evidence then and there 
presented to him he shall find that said 
liquor or any part thereof was, when seized, 
kept or carried by any person for the pur- 
pose of being sold or given away in viola- 
tion of this act, said justice or police mag- 
istrate shall render judgment that said 
liquor, or said part thereof, with the ves- 
sels in which it is contained, is forfeited. 
If no persoD be made defendant in manner 
aforesaid, or if judgment be in favor of all 
the defendants who appear, then the costs 
of the proceedings shall be paid by the city, 
town, or (if the said liquor is found as 
aforesaid without and beyond the limits of 
an incorporated town or city) county. If 
the judgment of said justice or police 
magistrate shall be against only one defend- 
ant appearing as aforesaid, he shall pay 
all the costs of the proceedings in the seiz- 
ure and detention of the liquor claimed by 
him up to that time and of said trial. But 
If such judgment shall be against more 
than one party defendant claiming distinct 
interest in said liquor, then the costs of 
said proceedings and trial shall be equit- 
ably, according to the discretion of said 
justice or police magistrate, apportioned 
among said defendants; and in either case 
such costs shall be collected by execution 
or executions issued by said justice or 



APPENDIX K 195 

police magistrate against the property and 
(if said executions are issued by a police 
magistrate) bodies of the defendants whose 
duty it is to pay the same, and paid into 
the treasury of the town, city, or county, 
as the case may be, where the said liquor 
was seized. And If any such execution 
shall not be forthwith paid, the defendant 
in execution, if said execution shall have 
been issued by a police magistrate, shall be 
committed to jail, and shall not be released 
therefrom until he shall have paid said exe- 
cution and the costs of his commitment and 
detention, or if said execution is issued by 
a police magistrate, until he shall have 
been imprisoned thirty days at least. The 
said justice of the peace or police magis- 
trate shall have power to continue to 
another time, not exceeding fifteen days, 
the hearing of the question of forfeiture as 
herein provided and also to adjourn the 
same from day to day until determined. 
Any person appearing as aforesaid may Appeal may 
appeal from said judgment of forfeiture ^e taken 
(as to the whole or any part of the liquor 
and vessels so adjudged forfeited) to the 
circuit court next to be holden in the 
county wherein such judgment is rendered, 
but his appeal shall not be allowed until 
he shall give bonds, with good and suflB- 
cient security, to be approved by the jus- 
tice or police magistrate before whom said 
judgment shall be rendered, to the treas- 
urer of the town, city, or county, as the 
case may require, in such an amount as 
said justice or police magistrate shall 
order, not less than five hundred dollars, 



196 LINCOLN AND PEOHIBITION 

conditioned that he appear before said cir- 
cuit court and prosecute his said appeal 
and abide the order of the court there- 
upon, and also, that he will not, during the 
pendency of said appeal, violate any of the 
provisions of this act; and in each in- 
stance in which any such appeal or ap- 
peals is or are allowed, said justice or 
police magistrate shall transmit to the 
clerk of said court, within ten days there- 
after, and on or before the first day of the 
term to which said appeal or appeals shall 
be taken, a copy of said record, by him 
made, of the original complaint, and all 
proceedings had before him in the case and 
said complaint; and the case or cases aris- 
ing upon said appeal or appeals shall there- 
upon be pending before said circuit court. 
If before said circuit court no party so 
appealing shall appear, the appeal bond or 
bonds shall be forfeited, and said court 
shall render judgment that the liquor and 
vessels in respect to which said appeal or 
appeals has or have been taken are for- 
feited; but if any party or parties so ap- 
pealing shall appear, said court shall pro- 
ceed to try, by jury, the issue or issues 
arising upon said appeal or appeals, sev- 
erally or collectively, as said court may 
deem proper; and if by verdict of the 
jury, accepted by the court, it is found that 
said liquor, in respect to which any appeal 
was taken, was, when seized, kept by any 
person for the purpose of being sold or 
given away in violation of this act, then 
said liquor and vessels containing it shall 
be adjudged forfeited, and said court shall 



APPENDIX K 



197 



to agent 



tax the costs arising upon said appeal 
against said party appealing, and order 
him to pay the same forthwith; and for 
the payment thereof, according to said 
order, his said appeal bond shall stand as 
security, and said defendant may by said 
court be committed to jail until the fine 
and costs are paid. 

S. 14. Whenever it shall be finally de- Forfeited 
cided that liquor seized as aforesaid is I'l^^off *« 
forfeited, the justice of the peace, police 
magistrate, or other court rendering final 
judgment of forfeiture, shall issue to the 
oflQcer having said liquors in custody, or to 
some other proper officer, a written order, 
directing him to deliver said liquor, and 
the vessels containing it, to some agent 
duly appointed for the sale of intoxicating 
liquors in the city, town, township, or 
precinct of the county where said liquor 
was seized, or in case there be no such 
agent in said city, town, township, or pre- 
cinct, then to some other such agent In 
some other city, town, township, or pre- 
cinct in the same county, which order the 
said oflacer, after obeying the commands 
thereof, shall return to said court with his 
doings thereon indorsed. Said agent shall 
receive said liquor and vessels, and if, in 
his opinion, the same, or any part thereof, 
be fit to be sold for any lawful uses, he 
shall sell the same, or such part thereof, in 
the course of his agency, for the benefit 
of the city, town, or county, as the case 
may be, wherein the same were seized; and 
if, in his opinion, the same, or any part 
thereof, be not fit to be sold, he shall de- 



198 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

stroy the same, or such part thereof. 
Whenever it shall be finally decided that 
any liquor so seized is not liable to for- 
feiture, the court so deciding shall issue a 
■written order to the officer having the same 
in custody, or to some other proper officer, 
to restore said liquor, with the vessels 
containing it, to the place where it was 
seized, as nearly as may be, or to the per- 
son entitled to receive it, which order the 
said officer, after obeying the commands 
thereof, shall return to said court with 
his doings thereon indorsed. And the costs 
of the proceedings in such case shall be 
taxed and paid by the city, town, or county 
wherein said liquor was so seized. 

S, 15. Whenever any officer authorized 
to commence a prosecution for a violation 
of the ninth section of this act, shall in any 
way receive notice that liquor has been 
seized upon a warrant issued pursuant to 
the twelfth section of this act, said officer 
ehall immediately cause a prosecution for 
violation of said ninth section to be com- 
menced before the justice or police magis- 
trate who issued said warrant against the 
person named in said warrant as the owner, 
or keeper, or carrier of the liquor to be 
seized, unless such prosecution shall have 
been already commenced by some other 
proper officer. 

S. 16. A complaint under the twelfth 
section of this act may be in form, sub- 
stantially, as follow^s: 
Form of «'To A. B., esq., a justice of the peace of 

oomplaint ^j^^ county of , or police magistrate 

of the city of , (as the case may be). 



APPENDIX K 199 

The complaint of the undersigned (resi- 
dent in said , of full age,) sheweth 

that in a certain place in said , to 

wit: (here insert description of shop, 
house, or other place, describing the same 
as nearly as may be,) certain liquor, to 
wit: (here insert description of liquor, 
describing the same as nearly as may be) 
is owned or kept (as the same may be) by 

C. D. in the , in the county of , 

and is intended by said C. D., to be sold 
or given away in violation of the act of 
1855, entitled 'An act for the suppression 
of intemperance, and to amend chapter 
thirty of the Revised Statutes,' and against 
the peace and dignity of the people of the 
State of Illinois. Wherefore, the com- 
plainants pray your honor to issue a war- 
rant of search, that said place may be 
searched, and said liquor seized and dis- 
posed of according to law. 

"Dated at , this day of . 

"E. F. 
"G. H. 
"I. J." 

The justice of the peace or police magis- 
trate to whom such complaint is made, 
having administered the oath or affirma- 
tion required by section twelfth, may cer- 
tify on such complaint the administration 
of said oath and his finding thereon, in 
the following form: 

" county ss. (Town or city Form 

and date). Personally appeared E. F., of oath 

G. H. and I. J., residents in said , 

being of full age, and presented to me the 
foregoing complaint, by them signed, and 



200 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

made solemn oath (or afBrmation, as the 
case may be) before me, that they have 
reason to believe, and do believe to be sub- 
stantially true the allegations in said com- 
plaint. Whereupon, I find that probable 
cause exists for said complaint; and (incase 
a dwelling house, etc., is to be searched) 

the said , one of said complainants, 

having on his oath (or affirmation) before 
me declared that he has reason to believe, 
and does believe, that within one month 
next before the making of said complaint 
spiritous or intoxicating liquor, or mixed 
liquor, a part of which is spiritous or in- 
toxicating, has been sold in violation of the 
act of 1855, for the 'suppression of intem- 
perance, and to amend chapter thirty of 
the Revised Statutes,' in said house, or in 
some dependency thereof, by the person 
accused, or by his consent or permission, 
upon the facts and circumstances dis- 
closed by said , to me, I am of the 

opinion he has adequate cause for such 
belief. 

"A. B., J. P., or Police Magistrate." 
A warrant issued pursuant to section 
twelfth may be, in form, substantially as 
follows : 
Form "The people of the State of Illinois to the 

of warrant sheriff of the county of , his deputy, 

or either constable of said county, or (if 
the warrant is to be executed in any city) 
to the sheriff, deputy sheriff, or constable 

of the county of , or marshal of the 

city of , greeting: 

"Whereas, E. F., G. H. and I. J., resi- 
dents in said , being of full age. 



APPENDIX K 201 



have, before me, made their written com- 
plaint, that in a certain place in said 
, to wit: in (here insert a descrip- 
tion of shop, house, or other place, describ- 
ing the same as nearly as may be) certain 
liquor, to wit: (here insert a description 
of the liquor as nearly as may be) is owned 
or kept (as the case may be) by C. D. of 
(name of county, city, town, or other place, 
naming it), and is intended by said C. D., 
to be sold or given away, in violation of the 
act of 1855, entitled 'An act for the sup- 
pression of intemperance, and to amend 
chapter thirty of the Revised Statutes,' and 
against the peace and dignity of the peo- 
ple of the State of Illinois. 

"And whereas, said complainants have 
before me made solemn oath (or affirma- 
tion, as the case may be) that they have 
reason to believe, and do believe, to be 
substantially true, the allegations in said 
complaint; and whereas I do find that 
probable cause exists for said complaint, 
and (in case a dwelling house, etc., is to 

be searched), and the said , one of 

said complainants, having on his oath (or 
affirmation, as the case may be), before me 
declared that he has reason to believe, and 
does believe, that within one month next 
before the making of said complaint, spirit- 
ous or intoxicating liquors, or mixed 
liquors, part of which is spiritous or intoxi- 
cating, has been sold in violation of the 
act of 1855, for 'the suppression of intem- 
perance, and to amend chapter thirty of 
the Revised Statutes,' in said house or some 
dependency thereof, by the person accused 



202 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

in the complaint aforesaid, or by his con- 
sent (or permission), upon the facts and 

circumstances disclosed by said , I 

am of opinion that he has adequate cause 
for such belief; now, therefore, in the name 
and by the authority of the people of the 
State of Illinois, you are hereby com- 
manded to search thoroughly, the said 
place, and to seize said liquor and the 
vessels containing it, and securely keep the 
same until final action be had thereon. 
Hereof fail not, but due return make. 
"Dated at , this day of 



"A. B., J. P., or Police Magistrate." 
The form of notice required by section 
thirteen may be substantially as follows: 

Form "To C. D. of , in the county of 

of notice , and to all others whom it may con- 

cern — Greeting: 

"Whereas, pursuant to the provisions of 
an act entitled 'An act for the suppression 
of intemperance, and to amend chapter 
thirty of the Revised Statutes,' upon due 

complaint, dated , and upon warrant 

duly issued upon said complaint, c'ertain 
liquor, with the vessels containing it (de- 
scribe the liquor and the vessels with rea- 
sonable certainty) was seized at (describe 
the place as nearly as may be) in the 

, of , on the day of 

■ — , A. D. 18 — , by (name of officer) 

a (sheriff, deputy sheriff, or other officer, 
as the case may be) which said liquor and 
vessels were seized because it is alleged 
that said liquor was owned, or kept, or 
carried, by some person, with intent that 



APPENDIX K 203 



said liquor should be sold or given away 
contrary to the law. And whereas the said 
liquor, if so owned or kept, with such in- 
tent, is liable to forfeiture; now you, the 
said C. D., and all others whom it may con- 
cern, are hereby summoned to appear be- 
fore me at (name of town, city, or other 

place,) on the day of , at 

o'clock, in noon, then and 

there to show cause. If any you have, why 
said liquor and vessels should not be ad- 
judged forfeited. 

"Dated at , this day of 

, A. D. 18—. 

"A. B., J. P., or Police Magistrate." 

S. 17. If any person shall be found In. 
a state of intoxication in any highway, 
street, courthouse, or other public place, 
or shall be found in a state of intoxication 
in any place, committing any breach of the 
peace, or disturbing others by noise, any 
sheriff, deputy sheriff, constable, or (if 
within any city) said officer or any police 
officer of a city, city marshal, or other 
officer, may without warrant, and it is here- 
by made his duty to take such person into 
custody, and detain him in some proper 
place until, in the opinion of such officer, 
he shall be so far recovered from his in- 
toxication as to be capable of properly 
testifying in a court of justice, and shall 
then bring him, if said person is willing, 
before some justice of the peace of the 
county, or if arrested within a city, police 
magistrate of a city; and if such person 
is willing to make full disclosures regard- 
ing the person or persons of whom, and 



204 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

the time, place, and manner in which the 
liquor producing his intoxication was pro- 
cured, and all the circumstances attending 
it, such justice or police magistrate shall 
administer to him the oath provided for 
witnesses, and he shall inquire of him in the 
presence of the officer, regarding the mat- 
ter, and if upon such inquiry, it shall ap- 
pear to such officer that any of the offenses 
specified in the eighth or ninth sections of 
this act have been committed within this 
State, such officer (who is hereby author- 
ized so to do) shall in due form of law 
file his complaint to said justice or police 
magistrate against the person or persons 
upon such disclosure appearing to the offi- 
cer to be guilty thereof, and shall, if the 
said person so taken intoxicated be willing 
thereto, detain said person until the trial 
of said complaint before said justice or 
police magistrate. And said justice or 
police magistrate shall issue his warrant 
for the immediate arrest of the person 
charged in said complaint, and he shall 
accordingly be arrested and brought before 
said justice or police magistrate (as the 
case may be) to answer to said complaint, 
and shall be tried thereon without unneces- 
sary delay, and convicted or acquitted in 
due form of law; and it shall be the duty 
of said officer to prosecute such complaint, 
and of any State's attorney, or (if the 
offense is committed within the limits or 
jurisdiction of a city) the city attorney to 
assist him in such prosecution. And the 
person so arrested, when taken and brought 
before said justice of the peace or police 



APPENDIX K 205 



magistrate, shall be immediately put to 
plead to said complaint; and unless he 
plead guilty, the trial of said complaint 
shall be commenced, and, whether he plead 
guilty or not, the testimony of the person 
found intoxicated as aforesaid shall be 
taken, of which testimony the said justice 
or police magistrate shall make a true rec- 
ord; and if the person so complained 
against shall be found guilty, and shall 
appeal from the judgment of said justice or 
police magistrate, or (in the cases before 
a justice hereinbefore provided for in sec- 
tions eight and nine) shall give bail for 
his appearance at the next term of the 
circuit court of the county wherein said 
judgment is rendered, or shall be commit- 
ted in default of giving bail for his said 
appearance, said justice may, in his dis- 
cretion, recognize with surety such wit- 
ness for his appearance to testify in said 
case before the court to which said ap- 
peal may be taken, or to which said defen- 
dant shall be required to appear. And if 
upon such trial or trials the person so 
found intoxicated shall, in the opinion of 
the prosecuting officer, testify freely, fully, 
and fairly regarding the procurement or 
receipt of the liquor which produced his 
intoxication, the person or persons of 
whom, and on what terms it was obtained 
or received, and the time and place of such, 
receipt, and all the circumstances regard- 
ing it, he shall be discharged, and no 
evidence which he shall have given, either 
before said justice or police magistrate in 
making such disclosures, or as a witness 



206 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

upon said trial or trials, shall be used 
against him in any trial or proceeding 
whatever; nor shall any prosecution be 
instituted or carried on against him for or 
on account of such intoxication. But if 
Refuse to he Shall refuse to be taken before said 

testify justice of the peace or police magistrate, as 

hereinabove provided, by the officer or 
officers having him in custody, or if, when 
brought before such justice of the peace 
or police magistrate, he shall refuse to 
make disclosures before said justice or 
police magistrate in the manner herein- 
before provided for, or shall refuse to 
testify freely and fully, as a witness on 
said trial or trials, then he shall be in due 
form prosecuted for his intoxication, and 
on conviction thereof be punished as pro- 
vided in the twenty-sixth section of this 
act. The costs of the arrest and detention 
of the person so taken intoxicated shall, 
upon the order of the justice or police 
magistrate before whom such person is 
brought, be paid from the treasury of the 
town, city or county in which the arrest 
is made. This section shall not be so con- 
strued as to authorize the forcible deten- 
tion of the person so taken intoxicated 
after he shall have recovered from his in- 
toxication, until the trial of the person or 
persons against whom his disclosures shall 
be made before the justice or police magis- 
trate; but if such person, upon recovering 
from his intoxication, shall not voluntarily 
consent to go, and go with the officer, and 
make the disclosures contemplated in this 
section, and shall not thereafter volun- 



APPENDIX K 



207 



eheriffs, 
constables, 
marshals, &o. 



tarily remain in custody of such officer 
01- some other proper person by said officer 
designated, until such trial, he shall be 
forthwith prosecuted for his intoxication 
under the twenty-sixth section of this act; 
and any officer who by this section is 
authorized to arrest such intoxicated per- 
sons, may make complaint against and 
prosecute such person for such intoxica- 
tion. 

S. 18. Every sheriff, deputy sheriff, and Duty of 
constable of any county, mayor, or city 
marshal, or other police officer of any city, 
or the president and trustees of any in- 
corporated town, are hereby authorized, 
and it is hereby made their duty, within 
their respective counties or cities or towns, 
as the case may be, when any violation of 
any of the provisions of this act shall come 
to their or his knowledge, or on being in- 
formed of the same, and being furnished 
with reasonable proof of the fact, or having 
good reason to suspect that an offense has 
been committed against this act, to make 
the complaints, and to institute and carry 
on prosecutions against any person or 
persons violating the provisions of this act 
as hereinbefore provided; and any com- 
plaint herein provided for may be so made 
by any one of the said officers. If any such 
officer receiving salary or fees, knowing or 
being informed, and being furnished with 
reasonable proof of the fact, or having 
good reason to believe or suspect that any 
person or persons have, within their re- 
spective jurisdictions, been guilty of violat- 
ing any of the provisions of this act, shall 



208 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

fail to make complaints and institute and 
carry on prosecutions against such person 
or persons so offending, as herein pro- 
vided for, said officer or officers shall, upon 
conviction, be punished by fine not less 
than twenty-five and not exceeding one 
hundred dollars. And, moreover, upon con- 
viction, if the same shall be had in the 
circuit court of the county wherein such 
officer shall hold his office, or of the circuit 
court of any other county to which the 
same may be removed by change of venue 
under the laws of this State, it shall be 
the duty of the court before whom such 
conviction shall be had, to declare the 
office of said officer vacant; and said 
officer shall thereafter be disqualified from 
holding the same office anywhere in the 
Penalty for State of Illinois. For any violation of 
violation ^jjjg section prosecutions may, upon the 

complaint of any resident of the county 
or (in case of violation hereof by a city 
marshal, mayor, or other police officer of 
any city) city wherein said officer shall 
hold his office, before any justice of the 
peace, or in case of a city officer, police 
magistrate, or by indictment in the circuit 
court of the county wherein said officer 
shall hold his office. Nothing in this sec- 
tion shall be construed to prevent any 
residents of a town, city, or county, as the 
case may be, from making complaints and 
instituting and carrying on prosecutions 
as in other sections of this act provided. 
Sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, and constables 
are authorized, and it is hereby expressly 
made their duty, to make said complaints 



APPENDIX K 



209 



and institute and carry on prosecutions for 
violations of this act where the offenses 
may be committed within the limits of 
an incorporated city, or any other place 
in their county, anything in any law 
or charter to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing. 

S. 19. All cases under this act which 
shall come by appeal, writ of error, or in 
any other manner before any higher court 
than a justice's court, shall in such higher 
court be conducted by the State's attorney, 
or (in case the offense be committed within 
the limits of any city) city attorney (as 
the case may be) in behalf of the prosecu- 
tion, and shall take precedence in such 
court of all other criminal business, except 
those criminal cases in which the parties 
accused are actually under arrest awaiting 
trial; and the prosecuting oflacers shall not 
have authority to enter a nolle prosequi, 
except by the consent of the court, and 
where the purposes of justice manifestly 
require it. 

S. 21. Whenever default shall be had 
of any recognizance, or whenever a breach 
of the condition of any recognizance or 
bond given pursuant to this act shall have 
occurred, the proper officer shall forthwith 
commence suit upon said recognizance or 
bond, and pursue the same to final judg- 
ment as speedily as possible. Any judgment 
recovered in such suit shall be for the full 
amount of said recognizance or bond, with 
costs of suit; and no court or officer shall 
remit to the defendant or defendants any 
part of said judgment. 



Caaes to be 
conducted 
by the State 
and the city 
attorneys 



Suit 
on bond 



210 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 



Not 

necessary 
to set forth 
the kind of 
liquor in 
complaint 



Fees 



S. 22. In any complaint or indictment 
under this act it shall not be necessary to 
set forth exactly the kind or quantity of 
liquor sold or manufactured, nor whether 
the accused was a principal or clerk, ser- 
vant or agent, or the exact time of the sale 
or the manufacture thereof, but proof of 
the violation by the accused of any pro- 
vision of this act, the substance of which 
violation is briefly set forth in said com- 
plaint or indictment, within the times men- 
tioned in said complaint, shall be sufficient 
to convict such persons; and it shall not be 
requisite in any complaint or indictment 
for a second or subsequent offense to set 
forth the record of a former conviction, 
but it shall be sufficient briefly to allege 
in such complaint such former conviction. 
Nor shall it be necessary, in every case, 
to prove payment in order to prove a sale 
within the meaning of this act. This act 
shall in all courts be liberally construed 
for the detection and punishment of of- 
fenses; and any defects in any complaint or 
indictment or declaration, either of form or 
substance, may be amended by the court 
before which the same is pending, whether 
by original entry, appeal or otherwise. 

S. 23. A justice of the peace, police 
magistrate, or clerk of the circuit court 
shall be entitled to receive for causing 
notices to be posted up and left pursuant 
to section 13, fifty cents for each notice; 
and for receiving a complaint and making 
certificate thereon, as required by sections 
12 and 16, the justice of the peace or police 
magistrate shall be entitled to receive one 



APPENDIX K 211 

dollar; for issuing an order pursuant to 
section 14, fifty cents; where notice shall 
be published in a newspaper, the printer or 
publisher of such paper shall be entitled 
to receive such compensation as the court 
shall order; and the oflBcer who shall make 
service of any warrant for the seizure of 
liquor shall be allowed for the same two 
dollars; for the removal and custody of 
said liquor, his reasonable expenses and 
one dollar; for the delivery of any such 
liquor under order of the court, his rea- 
sonable expenses and one dollar; and for 
posting and leaving the notices required 
by sections 13 and 33, one dollar. For all 
other services under this act, the said 
justice of the peace, police magistrate, 
clerks, or other oflBcers shall be allowed to 
receive the same compensation as is now Additional 
by law allowed for similar services. Noth- compensation 
ing in this act or any law of this State 
shall prevent any of said oflBcers from re- 
ceiving any additional compensation which 
may be allowed to them by the ordinances 
of any incorporated town or city. Nor 
shall any interest which said officers may 
have in their fees or in such compensa- 
tion render said officers incompetent to 
testify as witneses in any trial or pro- 
ceeding authorized by this act; nor shall 
any person be rendered incompetent to 
testify as a witness in any trial or pro- 
ceeding authorized by this act by reason 
or on account of said person being an in- 
habitant of any town, city, or county where- 
in an offense may be committed, or such, 
proceeding may be had. 



212 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 



Common 
council to 
prosecute for 
breach of 
bond 



Penalty for 
violating the 
provisions 
of this act 



S. 24. The common council of any city, 
the president, and trustees of any incor- 
porated town, or the board of supervisors, 
or the county court of any county, when- 
ever complaint shall be made to them that 
a breach of the condition of the bond given 
by an agent appointed by them under this 
act has been committed, shall notify such 
agent of such complaint, and if upon hear- 
ing of the parties it shall appear that any 
such breach has been committed, they shall 
revoke said agent's appointment; and 
whenever such breach is in any way made 
known to the common council of any city, 
the president and trustees of any town, 
the board of supervisors or county court of 
any county, or any one of them, they or 
he, shall, at the expense and for the use 
of said city, town, or county, cause the 
bond to be put in suit, 

S. 25. All payments or compensations 
for liquor hereafter sold in violation of 
this act, whether such compensation be in 
money, goods, land, labor, or anything else, 
shall be held to have been received in 
violation of law and against equity and 
good conscience, and to have been received 
upon a valid promise and agreement of 
the receiver in consideration of the re- 
ceipt thereof to pay to the person furnish- 
ing such consideration on demand the 
amount of said money, or the just value of 
such goods, land, labor, or other thing. 
All sales, transfers, conveyances, mort- 
gages, liens, attachments, pledges, and se- 
curities of every kind, which either in 
whole or in part shall have been made for 



APPENDIX K 



213 



or on account of spiritous or intoxicating 
liquors sold in violation of this act, shall 
be utterly null and void against all per- 
sons in all cases, and no rights of any kind 
shall be acquired thereby; and no action 
of any kind shall be maintained in any 
court of this State for spiritous or intoxi- 
cating liquors, or mixed liquor, of which 
a part is spiritous or intoxicating, sold in 
any other State or country contrary to the 
law of said State or country, or with in- 
tent to enable any person to violate any 
provision of this act, nor shall any action 
be maintained for the recovery or posses- 
sion of spiritous, or intoxicating, or mixed 
liquor, or the value thereof, except in cases 
where persons owning or possessing such 
liquor, with lawful intent, may have been 
illegally deprived of said liquor. Nothing 
in this section, however, shall affect in any 
way negotiable paper, in the hands of any 
1)ona fide holder thereof who may have Not to 
given valuable consideration therefor, with- extend to 
out notice of any illegality in its inception '^^^"^'j^'^ 
or transfer, or the holder of land or other hands of holder 
property who may have taken the same in bona fide 
good faith without notice of any defect 
in the title of the person from whom it was 
taken; and all other sections of this act, 
and all evidence given under them, shall 
be construed in the same way as they 
would be if this section were omitted from 
this act, and have the same effect. In all 
actions at law or suits in equity brought 
for the recovery of spiritous, intoxicating, 
or mixed liquor, or the value thereof, or 
founded upon sales, transfers, conveyances, 



214 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

mortgages, liens, attachments, pledges, and 
securities of every kind, which either in 
whole or in part shall have been made for 
or on account of spiritous or intoxicating 
liquor sold in violation of this act, it shall 
not be necessary for the defendant or de- 
fendants to plead the same, or that said 
liquor was sold contrary to the provisions 
of this act, but the same may be given in 
evidence on the trial of such action or 
suit in equity; and whenever it shall ap- 
pear in evidence or by the pleadings to 
any court before which such actions at 
law or suit in chancery shall be tried or 
pending, that the same is brought for the 
recovery of spiritous or intoxicating liquor, 
or mixed liquor sold contrary to the pro- 
visions of this act, or the value thereof 
(except in cases where persons owning or 
possessing such liquor with lawful intent, 
may have been illegally deprived of said 
liquor), or is founded upon any sale, trans- 
fer, conveyance, mortgage, lien, attach- 
ments, pledges, or securities of any kind, 
which either in whole or in part shall have 
been made for or on account of spiritous or 
intoxicating liquor sold in violation of this 
act, it shall be the duty of said court, 
whether the defendant or defendants 
interpose said defense or not, or whether 
the said defendant or defendants desire 
the same to be done or not, forthwith 
to dismiss the said action at law or suit 
In equity, at the cost of the plaintiff or 
plaintiffs or complainant or complainants, 
unless the said action at law or suit in 
equity shall be instituted for his own use 



APPENDIX K 



215 



and benefit by the bona fide holder of 
negotiable paper, who may have given a 
valuable consideration therefor without 
notice of any illegality in its inception or 
transfer, or the holder of land or other 
property who may have taken the same in 
good faith, without notice of any defect 
in the title of the person from whom it 
was taken. 

S. 26. If any person shall be found in- Fine for 
toxicated in any highway, street, court- being fo«nd 
house or other public place, or shall be j^ °^^pubUc 
found in a state of intoxication in any places 
place committing any breach of the peace, 
or disturbing others by noise, he shall, 
on conviction thereof, pay a fine of twenty 
dollars to the city, town, or (if found in- 
toxicated in any highway, street, court- 
house or other public place, or shall be 
found in a state of intoxication in any 
place committing any breach of the peace, 
or disturbing others by noise without the 
limits of an incorporated city or town) 
county in which the offense is committed, 
together with the costs of prosecution, and 
stand committed until the fine and costs 
are paid. Every prosecution for a viola- 
tion of this section shall be heard and 
determined by a justice of the peace of the 
county or (if within the limits of an incor- 
porated city) by a police magistrate of the 
city where the offense was committed; but 
the person convicted upon said prosecu- 
tion may appeal from said judgment to the 
circuit court of the county in which the 
offense is committed: Provided, that he Proviao 
shall forthwith give such bond (of recog- 



216 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

nizance) with surety as said justice or 
police magistrate shall order, conditioned 
for his appearance at the next term of the 
said circuit court to answer said complaint, 
and for abiding the judgment that may be 
rendered by the court thereon; and if in 
case of conviction of said offense before 
any police magistrate, or before the circuit 
court, the person so convicted shall fail to 
pay the fine and the costs of his prosecu- 
tion, he shall be committed to jail, and 
shall not be released until he shall have 
been imprisoned for thirty days. And if 
any ofiicer authorized to arrest with or 
without warrant any person so found in- 
toxicated shall fail so to arrest any person 
whom he may see intoxicated, said oflBcer 
shall forfeit and pay for every such offense 
twenty dollars, to be recovered by an action 
of debt before any justice of the peace 
of the county or police magistrate of any 
city within which said oflBcer shall hold his 
office. 
Compensation S. 27. The Common council of any city, 
to agents ^^q president and trustees of any incor- 

porated town, the board of supervisors or 
the county court of any county, or a ma- 
jority of either of said bodies, may appro- 
priate out of the city, town, or county 
treasury such sums as in their judgment 
shall be necessary for the purchase of 
spiritous or intoxicating liquor by the 
agent or agents of said city, town, or 
county, to be by him or them sold under 
the provisions of this act. And no agent 
appointed under this act shall have power 
on behalf of any city, to"WB, or county to 



APPENDIX K 



217 



contract any debt for spiritous or intoxi- 
cating liquors which shall to any extent 
be binding on such city, town, or county. 
All fines and forfeitures collected under Application 
the provisions of this act, and all profits of fines and 
accounted for by agents to sell spiritous or °^ ^^ ^^ 
intoxicating liquors shall be applied — first, 
to the payment of the compensation al- 
lowed said agent or agents, next to the 
payment of costs which may under the pro- 
visions of this act be incurred by said 
city, town, or county, and the remainder, 
if any, shall be put into the school fund 
of the city, town, or county, as the case 
may require, in which the offense may 
have been committed or the profits made. 
If any agent appointed under this act, shall 
sell any liquor at a greater profit than 
hereinbefore provided for, such agent shall 
be deemed guilty of an unlawful sale, and 
shall be prosecuted, and upon conviction 
be punished and dealt with in the same 
manner provided in case of illegal sales by 
other persons, and, moreover, shall ipso 
facto forfeit his appointment as agent, and 
shall not be thereafter qualified or allowed 
to act as agent for the sale of spiritous or 
intoxicating liquors under this act any- 
where in this State. 

S. 28. Whenever any violation of any of 
the provisions of this act shall be com- 
mitted in any corporated town or city, the 
prosecutions herein provided for may be 
instituted and carried on in the name of 
said city or town. In all cases under this 
act (except where the justice of the peace 
or police magistrate may be acting as a 



Appeal 
may be 
taken 



218 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

court of inquiry in accordance with the 
provisions of this act, and section 203, 
Chapter XXX, Revised Statutes) the party 
prosecuting or the defendant or defendants 
shall be entitled to a trial by jury, and in 
cases of trial by jury, where the punish- 
ment is by fine or imprisonment, either or 
both, the jury shall fix by their verdict the 
amount of the fine and the period of im- 
prisonment, in accordance with the pro- 
visions of this act. Appeals may be taken 
in all cases from the judgment of justices 
of the peace or police magistrates (except 
where said justice or police magistrates 
may be sitting as a court of inquiry as 
aforesaid), provided the defendant or de- 
fendants shall forthwith give the bond or 
bonds hereinbefore required. And any city 
or town aforesaid may also appeal from 
any judgment of such police magistrate 
or justice of the peace in like cases, by 
filing with said justice or magistrate the 
bond of said city or town under the cor- 
porate seal thereof, if they have any, and 
If not, then said bond shall be signed by 
the president of the board of trustees of 
such town, or the mayor or other chief 
oflScer for the time being of any city. 
And in case said prosecution before said 
justice or police magistrate shall be in the 
name of the people of the State of Illinois, 
appeals may be allowed in the same way 
to the people as is now provided in cases 
of assault and battery. Any bond given on 
appeal from the judgment rendered by jus- 
tices of the peace or police magistrate 
under the provisions of this act shall be 



APPENDIX K 219 

from the date thereof until the same is 

discharged a lien on all the property, real 

and personal, of principal and securities. 

And no principal or security on any appeal 

bond shall be released from his or their 

liability thereon by reason of any defect, 

formal or substantial, in said bond, or in 

the execution or approval thereof; but the 

said principal and securities shall in all 

courts be held liable in the same manner 

and to the same extent as if the said bond 

or bonds had been in all respects, written, 

taken, conditioned, executed and approved 

according to law. 

S. 29. Nothing contained in this act Manufacture 

shall be so construed as to prohibit the not prohibited 

manufacture or keeping for sale of burning ^''L^ "^ 

purposes 

fluids of any kind, perfumery, essences, 
chemicals, dyes, paints, varnishes, cos- 
metics, solutions of medicinal drugs, 
medical compounds, or any other article 
which may be composed in part of alcoholic 
or other spiritous liquor, if not adapted to 
use as a beverage: Provided, however, that 
if such article is capable or being used, 
or intended to be used as a beverage or in 
evasion of this act, the manufacture or 
keeping for sale, or sale thereof, shall be 
deemed a violation of this act and punished 
accordingly. 

S. 30. It shall be the duty of any mayor, Duty 
alderman, city marshal, or deputy marshal, °^ mayor, 
sheriff, deputy sheriff, or constable, if he 
shall have information that any intoxicat- 
ing liquors are kept or sold in any tent, 
shanty, hut, wagon, or hand-carriage of 
any kind, or place of any kind other than 



220 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

a dwelling house, for selling refreshments 
in any public place on or near the grounds 
of any cattle show, agricultural exhibition, 
military muster, camp meeting, or any pub- 
lic occasion of any kind, to immediately 
make complaint thereof on oath, before 
some justice of the peace or police magis- 
trate, who shall issue his warrant, com- 
manding him to search the place or places 
named in said complaint; and such mayor, 
alderman, city marshal or deputy marshal, 
sheriff, deputy sheriff or constable, shall 
proceed to search such suspected places, 
and if said officer shall find upon the 
premises any intoxicating liquor, he shall 
seize said liquor and arrest the keeper or 
keepers of said place, or of said wagon or 
carriage, and take them forthwith, or as 
soon as may be, before some justice of the 
peace of the county, or (if within a city) 
police magistrate of a city, and thereupon 
such officer shall make a written complaint, 
under oath or affirmation, and subscribed 
by him, to such justice or police magis- 
trate, who shall thereupon proceed to hear 
and determine said complaint and upon 
proof that such liquors are intoxicating, 
that they were found in the possession of 
the accused in a tent, shanty, or other place 
as aforesaid, other than a dwelling house, 
he or they shall be sentenced, upon convic- 
tion (if before a police magistrate), to 
imprisonment in the county jail for thirty 
days, or (if before a justice of the peace) 
to pay a fine of fifty dollars and costs of 
the proceedings; and said liquor so seized 
shall be forfeited and delivered over by 



APPENDIX K 



221 



the officer or other person having the same 
in custody, upon the order of the justice 
or police magistrate, to the agent (or one 
of them), of the city, town, or county 
where such liquor shall have been seized, 
to be dealt with by said agent as other 
forfeited liquor. 

S. 31. If any railroad conductor, freight Railroad 
agent, expressman, depot master, or other conductors 

,, , i i! • and other 

person m the employment of or m any ^^^^^ aeents 
manner connected with any railroad cor- nabie to 
poration, or any teamster, stage driver, or prosecution 
common carrier of any kind, or any person 
professing to act as agent for any other 
person or persons, whether within or 
without this State, or any other individual 
of whatever calling, shall knowingly bring 
within this State, for any other person, 
any intoxicating liquor, to be used or dis- 
posed of for any other purposes than those 
recognized lawful by this act, or shall 
knowingly procure for any other per- 
son or persons, or shall knowingly 
aid, assist, or abet, in any man- 
ner whatever, any other person or persons 
in procuring intoxicating liquor, except 
for the purposes contemplated by this act, 
such person or persons so offending shall 
forfeit and pay into the treasury of the 
county, town or city, as the case may be, 
a fine of one hundred dollars and costs of 
prosecution on the first conviction, and 
on the second and every subsequent con- 
viction two hundred dollars and costs, and 
be imprisoned in the county jail not less 
than three nor more than six months. If 
any contractor, subcontractor, agent, 



222 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 



Penalty 
for resisting 
officers 



Circuit court 
to have 
jurisdiction 
in certain 
caaes 



engine driver, conductor, director, or other 
employee, engaged in the construction or 
operation of any railroad, canal, or other 
public work in this State, shall violate any 
of the provisions of this act, he or they 
shall be fined and imprisoned, or either, as 
the case may be, to double the extent of 
other persons so offending. 

S. 32. Any person against whom or 
whose premises a search warrant has been 
issued, or any other person who shall re- 
fuse to permit the search to be made, or 
otherwise use violence to prevent the same, 
or who shall resist any officer in the 
execution of any other process authorized 
by this act, or threaten to use vio- 
lence to prevent the execution of the 
same, shall be deemed to have resisted the 
officer, and be made subject to the penalty 
inflicted by the Revised Statutes therefor. 

S. 33. Nothing in this act shall be so 
construed as to authorize any justice of 
the peace to try any person (except as a 
court of inquiry) for any offense against 
any provisions of this act where the pun- 
ishment is by a fine above one hundred 
dollars or imprisonment, or to adjudge 
any liquor to be forfeited, as hereinbefore 
provided, where the value of said liquor 
shall exceed one hundred dollars; but in 
all cases where any person for any offense, 
the punishment whereof is imprisonment 
or fine exceeding one hundred dollars, shall 
be brought before any justice of the peace, 
or where in the trial of any cause under 
this act it shall appear that the offense 
for which the accused is upon his trial is 



APPENDIX K 223 



one for which the punishment, as pre- 
scribed hereby, is more than one hundred 
dollars or imprisonment, or both, said 
justice shall proceed in such case in man- 
ner provided in section 203, of Chapter 
XXX, of Revised Statutes; and if such fact 
shall appear as aforesaid upon the trial 
of the cause by a jury, said jury shall be 
discharged without rendering any verdict, 
and said justice of the peace shall admit 
said defendant or defendants to bail, or in 
default thereof, commit him or them to 
await trial the next term of the circuit 
court of the proper county, in same manner 
as provided by said section 203, of Chapter 
XXX, Revised Statutes. In all cases where 
it shall appear, from the officer's return 
of any search warrant issued under the 
provisions of this act by any justice of the 
peace, that the liquor seized is of greater 
value than one hundred dollars, or if dur- 
ing or upon the hearing or trial of said 
complaint, as provided in the 13th section 
of this act, it shall appear to said justice 
on the evidence, or (if the trial is by a 
jury) by the verdict of said jury, that said 
liquor is of greater value than one hun- 
dred dollars, then in either or both cases 
it shall be the duty of said justice of the 
peace not to render judgment but forthwith 
to make a record of all the proceedings 
before him (except the testimony of wit- 
nesses), and certify the same under his 
hand and seal, and file the same in the 
clerk's office of the circuit court of the 
proper county; and said clerk shall, upon 
receiving and filing said transcript, imme- 



224 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 



Fine and im- 
prisonment 



diately cause to be published in some 
newspaper in his county (and if there be 
no newspaper in said county, then shall 
cause to be posted upon the door of the 
court house), and also in either case to 
be left with or at the last usual place of 
abode of the person named in the said 
complaint as the owner or keeper of said 
liquor, if such person be a resident of this 
State, a notice, summoning such person, 
and all others whom it may concern, to 
appear before the said circuit court, at the 
next term thereof, and show cause, if any 
they have, why said liquor should not be 
forfeited with the vessels containing it. 
Said circuit court shall hear and determine 
said question or forfeiture of said liquors, 
and shall proceed in the same manner pro- 
vided in the 13th and 14th sections hereof: 
Provided, if two weeks shall not intervene 
between the day of publishing and serving 
said notice as aforesaid and the first day of 
the next term of the said circuit court, said 
cause shall be continued until the next 
term of the said circuit court. The term 
"justice of the peace," as herein used, shall 
not be construed to include police magis- 
trate. 

S. 34. If any person, by himself, clerk, 
servant, or agent, shall sell, furnish, or 
give away any intoxicating liquor, which 
shall be impure or adulterated, he shall for- 
feit and pay into the treasury of the town, 
city, or (if the offense is committed with- 
out and beyond limits of any incorporated 
town or city) county, not exceeding one 
hundred dollars, and be imprisoned three 



APPENDIX K 



225 



months in the jail: Provided, no authorized 
agent appointed hereunder shall be subject 
to the liabilities of this section, unless 
such agent shall persist in selling or fur- 
nishing such impure or adulterated liquor, 
knowing the same to be such; prosecutions 
under this section may be, if the offense 
is committed within the limits of an incor- 
porated city, brought before a police magis- 
trate of said city, or by indictment in the 
circuit court of the proper county, whether 
committed within a city or not; and if the 
offense be committed without the limits of 
a city, then the case may be brought be- 
fore any justice of the peace of the county, 
in manner provided in section 203, of Chap- 
ter XXX, of the Revised Statutes. 

S. 36. All laws and parts of laws incon- 
sistent with this act shall be repealed when 
this act goes into operation; Provided, that 
aU prosecutions which shall have been 
commenced at the time this act goes into 
operation shall be carried on to final judg- 
ment and execution as if this act had not 
have been passed: Provided, all laws 
authorizing the issuing or granting licenses 
to sell spiritous or intoxicating or mixed 
liquors shall be repealed from and after 
the date of the passage of this act. 

S. 37. No officer or other person shall be 
liable to any action or prosecution, civil 
or criminal, in behalf of any person or the 
people, for the making, issuing, trying, 
or executing any complaint, warrant, or 
other process under this act, or for insti- 
tuting, prosecuting, or trying any suit, 
prosecution, or other proceeding here- 



inconsistent 

acts repealed 



Officers not 
liable to 
prosecution 



226 



LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 



Complaints 
of married 
women 



When to 
take effect 



Election to 
be held 



under: Provided, said officer or other per- 
son shall have acted in good faith. 

S. 38. Any married woman who shall 
complain that liquor has been sold to her 
husband contrary to law, or any widow 
who shall complain that liquor has been 
sold to her son or sons contrary to law, 
may, in the stead of place of the two resi- 
dents required by section twelve of this 
act, make the complaint mentioned in said 
section twelve, or any other section of 
this act, and may institute and carry on 
any prosecution provided by this act. 
Nothing in this act shall be construed to 
require that a search warrant should be 
issued or executed prior to a prosecution 
for a violation of any section of this act; 
but such prosecution or prosecutions may 
be instituted and carried on either with, 
or without the issuing or executing of such 
warrant. All prosecutions for any viola- 
tions of this act may be by indictment in 
the circuit court of the county where the 
offense may be committed, anything herein 
to the contrary notwithstanding; but a 
conviction before a justice of the peace or 
police magistrate shall be a bar to an 
indictment for the same offense, and vice 
versa. 

S. 39. The foregoing provisions of this 
act shall take effect on the first Monday 
of July next : Provided, if a majority of the 
ballots to be deposited as hereinafter pro- 
vided shall be "against prohibition," then 
this act shall be of no force or effect 
whatever. 

S. 40. An election shall be held on the 



APPENDIX K. 227 

first Monday of June next, at the usual 
places of holding elections according to the 
laws of this State in such case made and 
provided, at which election persons entitled 
to vote under the constitution and laws of 
this State may express their judgment and 
choice in regard to this act, by depositing 
in the ballot box their ballots, with the 
words "for prohibition" or "against pro- 
hibition." Notices of said election shall 
be given, and said election shall be con- 
ducted according to the laws of this State 
regulating general elections. Returns of 
said election shall be made and canvassed 
as is now provided by law in elections for 
representatives in Congress; and when the 
result of said election is so ascertained, the 
governor of the State shall issue his procla- 
mation announcing said result. This sec- 
tion shall take effect from and after its 
passage. 

S. 41. The secretary of state shall cause Duty of 
to be published in pamphlet form 50,000 secretary 
copies of this law immediately after the °*^**** 
adjournment of the Legislature, and shall 
forthwith send to each county clerk of the 
different counties five hundred copies there- 
of, to be distributed among the people; 
and it shall be the duty of the county 
clerks to cause said laws to be distributed 
throughout their counties respectively. 

APPROVED February 12, 1855. 



AUTHORITIES CONSULTED 

The author makes grateful acknowledgment of aid 
received by reference to the following books of record: 

Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished 
Men of His Time, by Allen Thorndike Rice. Published 
by the North American Review Co., New York. 

Abraham Lincoln and the Men of War Times, by 
Colonel A. K. McClure. Published by the Times Pub- 
lishing Company, Philadelphia. 

Abraham Lincoln and the Men of His Time, by Robert 
H. Browne. Published by the Blakely-Oswald Company, 
Chicago. ^ 

Abraham Lincoln, by Charles Carleton Coffin. Pub- 
lished by Harper and Brothers, New York. 

Abraham Lincoln; the True Story of a Great Life, by 
Herndon & Weik. Published by D. Appleton & Company, 
New York. 

The Lincoln Legion, by Louis Albert Banks. Pub- 
lished by the Mershon Company, New York. 

History of Illinois, by Davidson and Stuve. 

Life of General John A. Rawlins, by General James 
Harrison Wilson. 

History of the Secret Service, by General L. C. Baker. 

Anti-Saloon League Year Book, 1919. 

Reminiscences of Neal Dow. Published by the Eve- 
ning Express Company, Portland, Me. 

The Diary of Gideon Welles, by Edgar T. Welles; and 
Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln, by Gilbert A. 
Tracy. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston 
and New York. 

The use of Lincoln's letter to N. B. Judd, and the quo- 
tation from the Welles diary are by permission of and 
special arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Company. 

228 



INDEX 

Adams, Rev. Thomas, quoted by Neal Dow, Chapter I 
Arnold, Isaac N., signs Merwin petition, Chapter XIX 
Baber, A. J., on Lincoln, Chapter XVI; letter to John 

G. Woolley, Appendix "E" 
Baker, General L. C, on Alcohol the Army Curse, Chap- 
ter XXI; reports to President Lincoln and Secre- 
tary Stanton on Drunkenness in Army, Chapter 
XXI 
Bates, David H., on Merwin Documents, following Pre- 
face 
Beecher, Henry Ward, advised Lincoln, Preface 
Bellows, Rev. Henry W., advised Lincoln, Preface 
Berry, William, Lincoln's business partner, Chapter VI 
Black, Gov, Frank S., tribute to Lincoln, Chapter XXVIII 
Blair, Gov. Austin, signs Merwin's petition, Chapter XIX 
Blair, Henry, on Washingtonians, Chapter VII 
Blakeslee, Rev. F. D., Merwin's letter to; Appendix "F" 
Booth, John Wilkes, a drunkard. Chapter XXV 
Browne, Robert H., author. Chapters III and IV 
Browning, Senator O. H., signs Merwin petition. Chap- 
ter XIX 
Buckingham, Gov. W. A., signs Merwin petition, Chap- 
ter XIX 
Butler, Gen. Benjamin F., indorses Merwin, Chapter XIX 
Chandler, Senator Zach., signs Merwin petition. Chap- 
ter XIX 
Chiniquy, Father, defended by Lincoln, Preface 
Dana, Charles A., To New Haven Colony Historical So- 
ciety, Preface 
Davis, Judge David, on Lincoln's secretiveness. Chapter 

XXVI 
Davis, Dr. Nathan Smith, Appendix "G" 
Dix, General John A., letter of indorsement of Merwin, 
Chapter XIX 

229 



230 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

Dixon, Senator James, signs Merwin petition, Chap- 
ter XIX 

Doolittle, Senator James R., signs Merwin petition. 
Chapter XIX 

Douglas, Stephen A., debate with Lincoln at Ottawa, 
Chapter VI; Douglas against prohibition, Chapter 
XVI 

Dow, General Neal, Chapter I 

Drummond, Judge Thomas H., signs Merwin petition. 
Chapter XIX 

Edwards, B. S., and Illinois prohibition law. Preface and 
Chapter XIV 

Enloe, Abraham, quarrel with Thomas Lincoln, Chap- 
ter II 

Evening Post reference to Merwin, Chapter XXII 

Farmer, Rev. Aaron, published Lincoln's temperance es- 
say, Chapter V 

Fessenden, Senator William P., urges passage of internal 
revenue act, Chapter XXIII 

Greeley, Horace, Lincoln's message to, through Merwin, 
Chapter XXIV 

Grimes, Senator James W., signs Merwin petition, 
Chapter XIX 

Gurley, Rev. Phineas D., advised Lincoln, Preface 

Hammond, Surgeon General W. A., Chapter XIX 

Hanks, Nancy. Chapter II 

Harlan, Senator James, signs Merwin petition. Chapter 
XIX 

Harris, Senator Ira G., opposes internal revenue act. 
Chapter XXIII 

Hays, Will H., Postmaster General, Foreword 

Head, Rev. Jesse, Chapter II 

Herndon, W. H., Lincoln's law partner. Chapter V; on 
Lincoln's secretiveness, Chapter XXVI 

Hicks, Gov. Thomas A., signs Merwin petition. Chapter 
XIX 



INDEX 231 

Howe, Senator Timothy, signs Merwin petition, Chapter 

XIX 
Illinois Prohibition Law of 1855, Appendix "K" 
Jaquess, Col. J. F., commissioned by Lincoln, Preface 
Judd, N. B., Lincoln's letter to, on crooked voting. 

Chapter XXVII 
Kirkwood, Gov. Samuel, signs Merwin petition, Chap- 
ter XIX 
Lincoln, Abraham. Home training. Chapter III; prowess 
as athlete, Chapter IV; first temperance lecture. 
Chapter IV; essay on temperance at seventeen, 
Chapter V; denies being a grocery keeper, Chapter 
VI; admits he worked in still-house. Chapter VI; 
tells Swett he never tasted liquor. Chapter VI; 
joined Washingtonians, Chapter VII; address to 
Washingtonians, 1842, Chapter VIII; prophecy about 
end of slavery and drunkenness. Chapter VIII; Lin- 
coln and pledge-signing, Chapter XI; Lincoln and 
Breckinridge boy. Chapter XI; Lincoln indorses his 
pastor's strict temperance views, Chapter XII; 
Lincoln and Illinois prohibition campaign, Chapter 
XIII; wrote prohibition law, Chapter XIV; letter 
to N. B. Judd on crooked elections, Chapter XV; de- 
feated by Trumbull for Senator, February 8, 1855, 
Chapter XV; cold water only at Lincoln's notifica- 
tion, 1860, Chapter XVII; Lincoln and Merwin, 
Chapter XIX; writes pass for Merwin, Chapter 
XIX; Lincoln, and Grant's liquor drinking, Chapter 
XX; distress over Hooker's defeat at Chancellors- 
ville, Chapter XXI; Lincoln's last utterance on 
temperance, Chapter XXIV; Lincoln's assassins a 
drinking set. Chapter XXV; Lincoln's secretive- 
ness, Chapter XXVI; Lincoln and Panama Canal, 
Appendix "I" 
Lincoln, Robert T., letter on Merwin, Appendix "H" 
Lincoln, Thomas, father of Abraham, Chapter II 



232 LINCOLN AND PROHIBITION 

Leland, Charles G., on Nancy Hanks and social condi- 
tions. Chapter III 

Lloyd George referred to by Postmaster General Hays 
in Introduction 

Locke, D. R., quoted by Gen. Neal Dow, Chapter I 

Logan, Judge Stephen T., helps draft prohibition law, 
Chapter XIV 

McClure, Colonel A. K., on Lincoln, Preface; Merwin's 
message from Lincoln to, Chapter XXIV 

McDougall, General C, on Merwin, Chapter XIX; letter 
to Senator Harlan about Merwin, Appendix "B" 

Maine Law Riots in Chicago, Appendix "C" 

Maine Prohibition Law of 1851, Appendix "J" 

Mathew, Father Theobald, temperance reformer, visits 
New York 1849, Chapter IX 

Merwin, Rev. J. B., equipped by Lincoln, Preface; Mer- 
win's prohibition watch, inscription by Lincoln, 
Chapter XVIII; statement about Lincoln and him- 
self to Charles T. White, Appendix "D" 

Mills, Lyman A., owner of Merwin prohibition watch, 
Chapter XVIII 

Mudd, Dr. Samuel A., Chapter XXV 

Ogden, W. B., financed Lincoln 1855, Preface and Chap- 
ter XIV 

Palmer, Professor A. B., signs Merwin petition, Chapter 
XIX 

Pitcher, John, friend of Lincoln in Rockport, Ind., Chap- 
ter V 

Pomeroy, Senator, opposes internal revenue act. Chap- 
ter XXIII 

Prohibition Battle in Illinois in 1855, Appendix "C" 

Ramsey, Governor Alexander, signs Merwin petition. 
Chapter XIX 

Randall, Governor Alexander W., signs Merwin petition. 
Chapter XIX 

Rankin, Henry B., statement of authorship of prohibition, 
law, Chapter XIV 



INDEX 233 

Rawlins, General John A., reproves (Jeneral Grant, Chap- 
ter XX 

Roosevelt, President Theodore, on Lincoln's picture, 
Chapter XXVIII 

Russell, Howard H., affidavits obtained by. Chapter XI 

Scott, General Winfield F., indorses Merwin, Chapter 
XIX 

Scripps, J. L., signs Merwin petition, Chapter XIX 

Seward, Secretary W. H., and Panama Canal, Appen- 
dix "I" 

Simpson, Bishop Matthew, advised Lincoln, Preface 

Smith, Rev. James, advised Lincoln; preached temper- 
ance. Preface 

Sons of Temperance, Chapter X 

Sumner, Charles, indorses Merwin, Chapter XIX 

Surratt, Mrs. Mary E., Chapter XXV 

Swett, Leonard, on Lincoln's total abstinence. Preface; 
on Lincoln's secretiveness. Chapter XXVI 

Tracy, Gilbert A., book on Lincoln "Uncollected Let- 
ters," Chapter XXVI 

Trumbull, Senator Lyman A., Chapter XIX; signs Mer- 
win petition. Chapter XIX 

Washingtonian Movement, Chapter VII 

Watson, Rev. J. V., editor Christian Advocate, Chapter 
XVIII 

Welles, Secretary Gideon, on Gen. Hooker's drinking, 
Chapter XXI 

Wilmot, David, signs Merwin petition, Chapter XIX; 
opposes revenue act, Chapter XXIII 

Wilson, Senator Henry, signs Merwin petition, Chapter 
XIX; opposes revenue act, Chapter XXIII 

Wilson, Bishop Luther B., Dedication 

WooUey, John G., letter from A; J. Baber about Lincoln's 
temperance speech in 1855, Appendix "E" 

Wright, Senator, opposes internal revenue act. Chapter 
XXIII 

Yates, Gov. Richard, signs Merwin petition. Chapter XIX 



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